Bond ratings agencies’ periodic reports can offer insight and perspective on the higher ed market’s financial performance and underlying characteristics. Moody’s rates institutions that tend to be stronger financially than the U.S. higher ed sector as a whole, but it still tracks a range of factors affecting colleges of all sizes and types.
Its analysts expect colleges to experience median annual expense growth of 4% to 6% for the second straight year, driven by labor costs. That’s substantially greater than the typical increase over the last 10 years, which was 3% to 4%.
