Reframing Value in Higher Education: Insights from Individual-Level Tuition Data

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Abstract

This manuscript examines the economic value of higher education in varying contexts and employs an emerging research method to solve for the existing lack of individual pricing data. Specifically, we: 1) detail the lack of transparency in college pricing and its historical, theoretical, and conceptual underpinnings; 2) highlight limitations in public data sources and federal regulatory attempts to improve tuition transparency; 3) present an innovative solution based crowdsourced financial aid award offers and student demographic data; and 4) demonstrate how incorporating this kind of data produces insights that substantially deepen the ways that researchers and policy makers can make sense of changing perceptions of the value of higher education.

Authors

• Gregory C. Wolniak, Northwestern University

• Mark Salisbury, Pathways Planning & Insights