Distinguished Speaker

Why Does College Cost So Much? Robert Archibald

The cost of a college education has grown dramatically since 1980, and many families are worried that they cannot afford to send their children to college. The orthodox explanation of the rapid growth in college costs emphasizes the misdeeds of colleges and universities. The list of inefficiencies on college campuses is long: They offer too many frills. They have a lazy tenured faculty that is too interested in research. They have too many administrators. Robert Archibald of the College of William and Mary presents an alternative explanation. Based on his 2011 book Why Does College Cost So Much? coauthored with his colleague David Feldman, he explains that broad economy-wide forces offer a much better explanation of the time path of college costs than do the higher-education specific stories about the misdeeds of colleges and universities.