Costs of U.S. higher education are soaring

Press, 4 March 1982, Page 16

Costs of U.S. higher education are soaring

By

JOHN HUTCHISON

in San Francisco

New' Zealand students considering university study in the \ United States, can expect to ■ learn quickly why it can be called higher education. The costs of attending the University of 'California ( or Stanford University, : leaping higher and higher, typify the problem; It is in part the product of American inflation. It is compounded by slashing reductions in education funds by the Reagan Administration, and severely pinched state budgets and endowments. Stanford, one of the nation’s most distinguished private universities, is also one of the most expensive. Tuition, food’ and. lodging' there currently ' cost ?U510,105 per student per scholastic year . (about , nine months.) Stanford officials are now asking permission of the trustees to increase .that to;,. $U511,634 for .the year begin-

ning next September. The sum would include SUSB22O for tuition and 5U53423 for board nd room. Stanford has rich resources for aid to students, however. If students are academically acceptable and places are available, they are admitted; if they lack funds, the university will find adequate aid for them somehow. At the University of California, which was once tuition free to any Californian student who met its severe scholastic standards, various fees, now cost SUSI3OO for all students, plus JUS3ISO for non-residents, whether they, come from, another state,: or from a” foreign " country. The SUS44SO total 'does not include food and lodging, estimated at SUS3OIS if the student is frugal: The figure is for the Berkeley campus, generally considered to have a ' somewhat higher cost of living.

than the eight others in the university system. The University of California is expected to add another 5100 to its fees next year. California also has a huge California. State University, with 19 campuses. Like the University of California it is state supported, although separately administered and funded. Its fees are much lower, and some of its campuses are in communities where living costs are somewhat lower than in large urban centres. " . The rocketing costs of American higher education are not unique to California. Stanford’s fees, although the highest in California, are comparable to those of Harvard, Yale and” : other prestigious Eastern schools. At least four state” universities in the West have higher fees,than those at the University of California.