I teach in the economics department at William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. I chaired the department from 2011 to 2016, so I have seen how the sausage is made inside the world of academic politics. In my academic career, I have studied or taught at small private liberal arts colleges, a big suburban community college, a major private research university, and a public flagship. The world of American higher education is very complex, and people who oversimplify that world often misunderstand it.

My coauthor (Robert Archibald) and I have been thinking and writing about higher education issues for well over a decade. Our first book was provocatively titled "Why Does College Cost so Much?" We designed it to be accessible to a general audience, not just an academic one. We think anyone who has been to college, who has a relative or child who aspires to go to college, or who is just plain interested in the debate about the rising cost of higher education, will find something of interest in this book. Our take on the subject may intrigue you. It may enlighten you. It may infuriate you. But I doubt it will leave you feeling indifferent.

News: Bill Gates includes "Why Does College Cost so Much?" in his list of the top 7 books he read in 2013.

Story: http://www.thegatesnotes.com/Personal/Best-Books-2013

Our most recent book is titled, "The Road Ahead for America's Colleges and Universities." It was published by Oxford University Press in 2017. Our first book was primarily a look back at the causal forces that pushed cost and price in American higher education over the course of the last century. The Road Ahead, by contrast, is firmly forward looking. We examine the likely path or paths that this complex system may follow over the next thirty years. Some people foresee a technological scythe cutting down much of the higher education system, replacing it with inexpensive and high quality online alternatives. This narrative is suffused with the jargon of disruption. The American system of colleges and universities does indeed face serious demographic, economic, and social problems, and many of these challenges have been accelerated by the COVID pandemic. But we do not see major upheavals wiping out the traditional residential model of higher education. If anything, the pandemic experience with online and remote learning has reinforced the economic and social value of traditional face-to-face and residential education. Yet we are not optimists. The schools most under threat are the small colleges and less selective state universities that serve the bulk of America's lower income and first generation students.

I am now at work on a new book that will explore our policy options for making the American higher education system a better vehicle for promoting social mobility.

Robert B. Archibald is Chancellor Professor of Economics at the College of William and Mary. He was born in Mt. Holly, New Jersey. At age two he tagged along with his family as they moved to Oklahoma, and at age ten he accompanied them to Arizona. He was graduated from the University of Arizona in 1968. After serving in the Army in Vietnam, he attended graduate school at Purdue University. He finished his doctoral work as a Baker-Weeks Fellow at the Brookings Institution in 1974. His first job was as an economist in the Research Division of the Office of Prices and Living Conditions at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 1976 he took a position in the economics department of the College of William and Mary. At various times at William and Mary he has served as the chair of the economics department, director of the Thomas Jefferson Program in Public Policy, interim dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, president of the Faculty Assembly, and faculty representative on the Board of Visitors, the school’s governing board. Professor Archibald is married and has two adult children.

Professor Archibald’s current research focuses on the economics of higher education. His first book, Redesigning the Financial Aid System: Why Colleges and Universities Should Switch Roles with the Federal Government, was published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 2002. In the last 10 years he and his colleague David Feldman have engaged in a long and fruitful collaboration. Together Professors Archibald and Feldman have published a number of research papers, policy analyses, and opinion articles on higher education issues. Their current book, Why Does College Cost So Much? published by Oxford University Press summarizes the findings of this research.

Unlike much of the work on higher education economics, Why Does College Cost So Much? focuses on factors higher education shares with other industries rather than suggesting that colleges and universities are somehow special or different. This explanation shows that economy-wide factors are largely responsible for what has happened to college costs and prices since World War II. It leaves little room for the dysfunctional behaviors at colleges and universities often highlighted in other accounts of rising higher education costs.

We designed Why Does College Cost So Much? for a general audience. The issues involved are too important for us to limit our discussion to academics specializing in higher education finance. Policy makers at the national, state, and institutional level must understand the forces driving up college costs and prices. And parents and students need to understand these forces as well. College costs are an important issue. We hope our analysis helps people understand what is going on.