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In the past few years an important beginning has been made toward defining and exploring the major issues in the economics of higher education. The research of economists covers a wide range of problems, from that of the Nation's requirements for college-trained people, to detailed questions of financing. Perhaps no single area of this work offers larger promise than that of research on education as an investment in people. The Division of Higher Education has sought, through this volume, to bring together important contributions about the economics of higher education for the use of educators and others concerned with the formulation of educational policy. The Division sought, too, to provide a working tool for the economist turning anew to research on higher education. This volume is a summary of a substantial segment of earlier research and opens up new questions for inquiry on a broad range of macroeconomic problems. Part I of this volume concerns the demands of students for higher education and of the Nation for high-talent manpower. Part II presents the fundamentals of a theory of investment in people through education. It includes consideration of the essential differences and similarities between investment in people and investment in physical capital, an assessment of the educational stock of the labor force--both in terms of original cost and in terms of replacement--and estimates of the volume of resources allocated to education and the return on this investment. Part III deals with the financing of higher education and covers a wide range of sources of funds, public and private. Part IV describes briefly the ongoing research in the economics of higher education and outlines the range of issues which require still further study. Appendices include: (1) Sample size, interviews and non-interviews by spending unit and family classification for the cross-section and re-interview sample; (2) Earnings forgone while attending high school, as calculated by Schultz, compared with such forgone earnings as reported in two empirical studies, selected years, 1899-1923; and (3) Local funds for higher education (current funds only): amount and percentage of total State and local current funds, 50 States and District of Columbia, 1957-58. (Contains 396 footnotes, 101 tables, and 4 charts.) [Due to its size, this volume has been processed as three separate parts. The first part includes the foreword through Chapter VIII (ED543989). The second part includes Chapters IX through XV (ED543990). The third part includes Chapter XVI through the Appendices (ED543991). The cover page and table of contents are repeated in the second and third parts. Best copy available has been provided.]

During the period when the economic depression was most serious having the effect upon schools, the Office of Education presented relevant data in a number of different publications. This chapter of the Biennial Survey of Education reviews the most significant findings in those publications and draws them together as a permanent report of some of the most important effects of subnormal economic conditions of the period upon the schools. The lack of similar information of previous depressions made it evident that such a record is desirable. Other chapters in the Commissioner's Biennial Survey, while not treating this problem specifically, will, nevertheless, indicate trends with respect to elementary, secondary, and higher education during the past several years, and will show what rebuilding and reorganization have followed the depression. This chapter also shows a number of new developments which are worth careful appraisal. This chapter is divided into two parts: (1) Public elementary and secondary schools; and (2) Colleges and universities. Individual parts contain footnotes. (Contains 35 tables.) [Best copy available has been provided.]

It is the purpose of this survey to call attention to some of the more significant developments that have taken place in higher education between 1930 and 1936. It covers, to a considerable extent, the critical period of the economic depression and includes those years in which recovery and improvement in higher education have begun to be marked. It presents developments which have taken place during the period covered by the "Biennial Survey of Higher Education, 1934-36." The reaction of higher education to the depression is considered in some of its quantitative aspects in the statistical reports of the Office, but the results of the depression as it relates to education as a whole are considered in a separate chapter of the "Biennial Survey of Education." This bulletin is divided into eight sections, as follows: (1) The Harvard University Tercentenary; (2) Higher Education and the Economic Depression; (3) Administration and Control of Higher Education; (4) The Student Body; (5) The Teaching Staff; (6) College Organization and Instruction; (7) Graduate Study and Research; and (8) Professional Education. (Contains 11 tables and 39 footnotes.) [Best copy available has been provided.]