College Spending in a Turbulent Decade: Findings from the Delta Cost Project. A Delta Data Update, 2000-2010

Two years after the onset of the Great Recession, nonprofit colleges and universities found themselves struggling with their finances. Average per-student spending on academics declined in fiscal year (FY) 2010, and despite per-student spending cuts to prerecession levels at four-year institutions, students shouldered a larger share of the cost this time around. Even in private nonprofit colleges, average educational spending per student declined for the first time in a decade. However, it is higher education's most accessible institutions--community colleges--that took the greatest financial hit in 2010. As funding failed to keep pace with historic increases in enrollment, educational spending per student plummeted to its lowest level in a decade. These are some of the key findings in this annual update to the Delta Cost Project's "Trends in College Spending" report series--a series of data briefs highlighting patterns and trends in institutional revenues, spending, subsidies, and outcomes for public and private nonprofit colleges and universities between 2000 and 2010, with particular attention given to changes between 2009 and 2010. (Contains 4 figures and 12 footnotes.)