Cost Studies in Higher Education

This is a summary of the literature on the costs of higher education. Subtopics include: (a) financial accounting in higher education; (b) registrars ' records: the units in unit cost studies; (c) cost studies, historically; (d) current cost concepts; and (e) recent cost studies and procedural guides. The concepts that underlie current cost studies in higher education are, within the limits of my knowledge, attributed to those who introduced them to a wide audience. While not exhaustive, this document provides a comprehensive view of what to many has been an obscure field. Cost studies in higher education generally date from the efficiency or scientific management movement in the United States: 1900 to World War I. The Carnegie Foundation was the leading organization to which educational survey directors and cost researchers looked for inspiration and support. "Despite the cautious note sounded by its president, the foundation supported several studies purporting to demonstrate the need for business standards in institutions of higher learning. The most doctrinaire was written by Morris L. Cooke, a friend and disciple of Frederick W. Taylor [Beach, 1966; p. 266.]. " William H. Allen (1915), another of Taylor's disciples, and Allen, et. al. (1917) surveyed rural schools in Wisconsin, the Wisconsin State Normal Schools, and the University of Wisconsin. Presumably on this basis he wrote Self-Surveys by Colleges and Universities, which capped his career as an "education efficiency expert." The goal of the scientific management movement was efficiency. In education, the central concept was unit cost. Unit cost, as used in higher education since 1900, is the generalized, quantified value of the resources invested and expended, divided by a standard measure of outcome such as a contact period, credit, major program, curriculum, or student. The unit is based on registrars ' records. Cost is based on budgets and financial accounting records