Delta Cost Project Data
The Delta Cost Project makes data available in a number of different formats. The database that AIR uses to analyze trends and to produce reports and briefs can be accessed from the National Center for Education Statistics at http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/deltacostproject/.
In addition, AIR, along with Xcalibur, provides an interactive web-based data system that gives higher education stakeholders easy access to information on finance, performance, and enrollments for individual institutions, groups of institutions, or the nation. This can be accessed at http://www.tcs-online.org/Home.aspx.
Delta Cost Products
Delta Issue Briefs
Academic Spending Versus Athletic Spending: Who Wins?
January 2013
Athletics are big business on many college campuses, but does this come with a price tag? This issue brief looks at academic and athletic spending in NCAA Division I public universities between 2005 and 2010. Among a host of findings, this brief shows that the athletic departments of most public colleges and universities competing in NCAA Division I sports typically spend three to six times as much per athlete as their institutions spend to educate their students.
Delta Data Updates, 2000-2010
December 2012
This series of data briefs was developed by the Delta Cost Project at AIR using data from the IPEDS Analytics: Delta Cost Project Database 1987-2010, which was released on August 14, 2012, by the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. The intent of these briefs is to update key tables and figures from Trends in College Spending: Where does the money come from? Where does it go? What does it buy?
- College Spending in a Turbulent Decade (PDF) NEW
- Spending and Results: What Does the Money Buy? (PDF)
- Spending, Subsidies, and Tuition: Why Are Prices Going Up? What Are Tuitions Going to Pay For? (PDF)
- Spending: Where Does the Money Go? (PDF)
- Revenues: Where Does the Money Come From? (PDF)
Delta Perspectives
Climbing Walls and Climbing Tuitions (PDF)
December 2012
High-end amenities like rock climbing walls on college campuses have become an easy target for those attempting to explain rising tuitions. This Delta Perspective looks beyond the media attention surrounding these “frills” to examine more serious questions about spending on campus facilities, college spending in general, and the real drivers of rising tuitions.
Not Your Mother’s College Affordability Crisis (PDF)
December 2012
This short opinion piece examines the college affordability discussions of today and how they differ from the affordability concerns of past generations.
Postsecondary Student Attrition
October 2012
New Research from the Delta Cost Project at American Institutes for Research (AIR) addresses postsecondary costs resulting from student attrition and ways to measure and manage them.
- The Institutional Costs of Student Attrition (PDF)
- Measuring (and Managing) the Invisible Costs of Postsecondary Attrition(PDF)
- Attrition Cost Model Instruction Manual (PDF)
- Benchmarking Attrition: What Can We Learn From Other Industries? (PDF)
Trends in College Spending 1999-2009
September 2011
Where does the money come from? Where does it go? What does it buy?
- News Release (PDF)
- Report highlights (PDF)
- Full report (PDF)
Trends in College Spending 1998-2008
July 2010
Where does the money come from? Where does it go? What does it buy?
- Full Report (PDF)
- News Release (PDF)
Trends in College Spending
January 2009
Where does the money come from? Where does it go? What does it buy?
- Full Report (PDF)
- Executive Summary (PDF)
- Presentation Summary (PDF)
- Recommendations for Action (PDF)
- Frequently Asked Questions
- State Data
Delta Project Presentations
Improving Accountability for Costs in Postsecondary Education (PowerPoint)
Jane V. Wellman
University of Louisiana System Education Forum on Access to Success
March 27, 2008
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Top-line Findings From Analysis of Revenue and Expenditure Trends (PowerPoint)
Jane V. Wellman
ACE_SARA Research Group
February 29, 2008
Washington, DC
Reports From Other Sources
The Higher Education Funding Disconnect: Spending More, Getting Less, by Jane V. Wellman for the November-December 2008 issue of Change Magazine.
One in 100: Behind Bars in America 2008 (PDF), by the PEW Center on the States, is a trend report on spending for corrections, which includes a snapshot of trends in spending for higher education (declining) compared to trends in spending on corrections (increasing).