Colleges’ operating costs increased 5.2% in the 2022 fiscal year, according to Commonfund’s Higher Education Price Index, or HEPI, an inflation index created specifically for colleges. But that increase lagged behind the consumer price index, which saw a jump of 9.1% over that same period.
It is rare for the two metrics to diverge so significantly, Moody’s said.
The difference can be explained partly by faculty salaries, which rose the least among eight cost categories that HEPI evaluated.
