Using the Community College to Control College Costs: How Much Cheaper Is It?

Abstract

Data from NCES indicate that it is two to three times more expensive to educate a student at a public four-year college than at a community college. These figures exaggerate the difference between the two when you calculate the costs of the first two years of education for students working on a bachelor's degree. Using modified Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) data from the recently released Delta Project, this study shows that the cost per full-time equivalent (FTE) and the public subsidy per FTE are lower at public master's level colleges than at the community college. Trend data from 1987–2005 are examined along with appropriate cautions for interpreting the results.

Acknowledgments

This paper was previously presented at the 2010 Conference of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), November 18–20, in Indianapolis, IN.

The authors are grateful to Hirschel Kasper, Duane Leigh, and Christopher Mullin for a careful reading of this paper. Our thanks to Aurora D'Amico at the U.S. Department of Education for assistance in working with the IPEDs database.

Notes

Source: Delta Cost Project IPEDS Database; and U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), 2006. Computation by DAS-T Online Version 5.0 on 11/13/2009.

Col. 1 = operating costs (excludes capital costs).

Col. 3 = col. 1 minus research (R) and public service (PS) and fixed costs (administration; operation andmaintenance of plant).

Col. 5 = col. 3 minus col. 4.

Col. 6 = col. 2 minus col. 4.

^a public master's level (excludes research universities).

^b 4-year college figures are adjusted to approximate the costs of lower-division instruction using a divisor of 1.5162.