A new survey of nearly 300 colleges and universities by Moody’s Investors Service shows that about one-third expect their net tuition revenue will either decline outright this year or increase at a rate that fails to keep pace with inflation, a sign of the continued financial pressure they face.

And for all public and private colleges surveyed, the median net tuition per student is projected to grow more slowly than it did the previous year.

For public institutions, the increase is projected to be about 2.7 percent. That’s notably lower than the average median increase of nearly 7 percent in the five previous years, a period in which public colleges gained revenue by raising their sticker prices and more heavily recruiting higher-paying students from out of state. “This year’s lower median increase is the result of reduced sticker-price increases as publics become increasingly sensitive to families’ ability to pay,” the Moody’s “special comment” on the survey says…read more