New Data on Postsecondary Tuition, Fees and Degrees

The average tuition and required fees at 4-year public institutions increased by nearly 4 percent (after adjusting for inflation) for both in-state and out-of-state students between 2013-14 and 2015-16, according to a report released today (July 14, 2016). However, for-profit institutions reported a 1 percent decrease in tuition and fees.

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), in the Institute of Education Sciences, released a First Look report on the cost of attendance, enrollment, and degrees conferred at postsecondary institutions. This First Look presents preliminary data findings from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) fall 2015 collection, which included three survey components: Institutional characteristics for the 2015-16 academic year; completions covering the period July 1, 2014 through June 30, 2015; and data on 12-Month Enrollment for the 2014-15 academic year. Among the other findings in the report:

•    Of the 7,164 Title IV institutions in the United States and other U.S. jurisdictions (2015-16), 3,085 were classified as 4-year institutions, 2,081 were 2-year institutions, and the remaining 1,998 were less-than-2-year institutions;

•    Nearly 59 percent of the roughly 3.2 million students receiving degrees at 4-year Title IV institutions earned a bachelor’s degree. This percentage varied by control of institution, with bachelor’s degree received by 65 percent of the 1.8 million students at public institutions, 53 percent of the roughly 1.0 million students at private nonprofit institutions, and 40 percent of the roughly 326,000 student at for-profit institutions; and

•    Institutions reported a 12-month unduplicated headcount enrollment of about 27.4 million individual students. Of these, roughly 23.6 million were undergraduates and approximately 3.8 million were graduate students.