Along with other universities around the country, Temple’s tuition and fees increased at double the rate of inflation, according to figures reported by the College Board last Monday.
Since last year, tuition and fees at Temple, not including room and board, rose 5.9 percent for both in-state and out-of-state students to $10,802 and $19,320, respectively. At public institutions nationally, in-state students paid 6.6 percent more and out-of-state students 5.5 percent more, according to the College Board’s report, Trends in College Pricing 2007.
The price of education, both at Temple and nationally, is rising faster than the consumer price index, the bundle of goods used to gauge variations in prices over time. For many Temple students’ families, who on average earn a total salary of $62,940 a year, the cost can hit especially hard.
The net price of tuition and fees, the price after grants and aid have been taken accounted for, has rapidly increased in the past five years by $960 at public institutions. Dr. Timm Rinehart, director of admissions, did not have aid data for Temple for 2007.
The national averages given in the report also provide insight into the impetuses behind Temple’s new $350 million fundraiser. Tuition and fees also account for a larger proportion of Temple’s revenue than they do at most public doctoral universities, where they make up 25 percent of a school’s income. At Temple, that money accounts for 43 percent of the school’s financial pie chart.
Despite the rise in price, which the report says has occurred faster than inflation for at least the past decade, the amount of state appropriations given to schools has fallen for the last six years. Even though the average Temple student pays about $4,000 more for an education, the support the school receives from state and local sources is about $700 less than the average public four-year university.
During that time, however, state grants have hovered around 12 percent in terms of student aid sources.
Last year was also the second year in a row that the average amount awarded in Pell grants, the primary source of aid for most students, fell, while the amount of private and state borrowing increased by 12 percent.
Andrew Thompson can be reached at andrew.thompson@temple.edu.
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