Higher Cost Does Not Always Equate to Higher Quality

As higher education institutions continue to work through these chaotic economic times, the question becomes what has caused the cost of tuition to increase throughout the years. There are theories that what has been coined as “cost disease” has developed and has caused many of our institutions to raise the cost of education throughout our nation. In the book The College Cost Disease: High Cost and Lower Quality, Robert Martin mentions how some consumers get the idea that if the cost of education increases, that means that the quality/productivity of the education has increased as well.

The models presented in Martin’s book demonstrates how it was predicted that lower student/staff rations, lower teaching loads, and smaller class sizes can cause an increase in the costs per student enrolled in a university. According to Martin, faculty productivity has declined while faculty salaries have increased (Martin, 2011, pp. 28-29). Martin also reported that there was a decline in nonacademic professional staff productivity, which has been shown to be a major contributing factor to the rising cost in higher education (Martin, 2011, p. 29).

Another factor that Martin reports on is the decrease in the student to faculty ratio, comparing public institutions to private institutions. Martin measured the difference in the student/faculty ration between 1970 and 2007. In 1970, public institutions measured the student/faculty ratio at 20.5. By 2007, the student/faculty ratio declined to 15.4, a 25% decrease since 1970. For private institutions, the student/faculty ratio was measured at 13.5. By 2007, the ratio decreased by 28% to 9.6 (Martin, 2011, pp. 31-32). With lower ratios, there is actually a decrease in the quality of education provided to the students enrolled in the institution.

To avoid the misunderstanding of equating quality with higher cost, consumers should conduct further research about the institutions. Per Martin, consumers should not use price as an indicator of quality (Martin, 2011, p. 54).

Martin, R.E. (2011). The Cost Disease: Higher Cost and Lower Quality. Edward Elgar Publishing Limited. Cheltenham, UK.