Description
Reputation competition dominates higher education. Students and their parents, and public opinion in general, associate higher tuition with higher quality and greater accolades; price is used as a proxy for quality only when consumers are uncertain about quality prior to purchase. Higher education services are the most complex types of 'experience goods'; a service whose quality can only be determined after a purchase has been made. Applying formal economic theory to higher education, Robert Martin examines how and why attempts to control costs are controversial and the damaging effects these controversies have on institutions' reputations. Arguing that the college access problem cannot be solved until colleges and universities find a way to control their costs, this book brings to the fore the leading ideas that will bring about much-needed budgetary reform in higher education.
Governing boards, administrators and faculty members should find much to think on and learn from here; parents, students, alumni and taxpayers will find the research and conclusions alarming, though eye-opening.
About the Author
Robert E. Martin, Emeritus Professor of Economics, Centre College, US
Reviews
'The College Cost Disease is indeed a useful reading, not only for the students of economics of education, but also for others interested in quality and also that the costs of higher education would immensely benefit from.' -- Jandhyala B.G. Tilak, Journal of Educational Planning and Administration
Book Information
ISBN 9781781953389
Author Robert E. Martin
Format Paperback
Page Count 208
Imprint Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd
Publisher Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd