Delta Cost Project

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Report: College Spending in a Turbulent Decade: Findings From the Delta Cost Project
Report: Not Your Mother’s College Affordability Crisis
Report: Families Carry Heavier Tuition Load as Funding Falls
Project: Delta Cost Project: Trends in College Spending

AIR in January 2012 became responsible for conducting the analytic work of the Delta Cost Project, a nationally recognized effort for monitoring and identifying revenue and spending trends in public and private higher education.

The shifting of analysis to AIR coincides with the transition of the database portion of the work to the federal National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), which will maintain the data as part of its Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). IPEDS conducts annual surveys gathering information from every college, university, and technical and vocational institution that participates in the federal student financial aid programs.

“The Delta Cost Project has provided invaluable information and insights into financial trends in higher education since its creation five years ago,” said AIR Managing Director Rita Kirshstein, who has provided support to the project. “We will maintain the same high quality effort.”

AIR’s team of experts who will produce the project’s annual “Trends in Spending Report” and maintain the Delta Project website that provides institutional-level data using Delta derived metrics. AIR also plans to expand Delta’s analytic work. Jane Wellman, the project’s founder, will join the existing advisory group which will continue to inform the project.

The transition of the database from the Delta Cost Project to NCES is planned for early 2012. The publications and online tool of the Delta Cost Project will be transitioned to AIR during that same time.