Prices Paid by Colleges Rise 3.6 Percent, Trailing Consumer Price Index

Autor/in	Blumenstyk, Goldie
Titel	Prices Paid by Colleges Rise 3.6 Percent, Trailing Consumer Price Index
Quelle	In: Chronicle of Higher Education, 54 (2008) 47, (1 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0009-5982
Schlagwörter	Educational Finance; Cost Indexes; Operating Expenses; Consumer Economics; Higher Education + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Bildungsfonds; Kostenentwicklung; Betriebskosten; Konsumökonomie; Hochschulbildung; Hochschulsystem; Hochschulwesen
Abstract	This article reports that the Higher Education Price Index (HEPI), a widely used measure of colleges' costs, rose by 3.6 percent for the 2008 fiscal year, which ended on June 30. But even as they reported the good news of that moderate increase, experts at the Commonfund Institute who maintain the index noted that broader economic trends could portend higher costs for colleges in the months to come. HEPI is derived by calculating the change in the costs of eight categories of goods and services that colleges pay for in the course of the year. Salaries and related costs make up five of the categories and 85 percent of the costs. Utilities count for 7 percent, and supplies and materials, 6 percent. For the first time since 1995, the annual increase in the index was smaller than that of the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The CPI, which went up by 3.7 percent for the same period, is more heavily influenced by increases in costs for housing, transportation, and food. HEPI, because it is so dependent on salaries, is slower to reflect those costs because salary increases tend to lag behind hikes in consumer prices. Also, the HEPI's calculations for utility costs may be unusually understated because the most current data available from the institute's source are from December 2007, while most of the recent spikes in the costs of oil and other utilities have come in the months since then. (ERIC).
Anmerkungen	Chronicle of Higher Education. 1255 23rd Street NW Suite 700, Washington, DC 20037. Tel: 800-728-2803; e-mail: circulation@chronicle.com; Web site: http://chronicle.com/
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10