Highed Education Bubble Update: A Public University Joins the Expanding $50k Club

Chronicle of Higher Education -- "The ranks of the most expensive colleges have grown again: 100 institutions are charging $50,000 or more for tuition, fees, room, and board in 2010-11, according to a Chronicle analysis of data released last week by the College Board (see the top 20 above). That's well above the 58 universities and colleges that charged that much in 2009-10, and a major jump from the year before, when only five colleges were priced over $50,000.This year marks a milestone as the first public institution has joined that elite club: the University of California at Berkeley is charging out-of-state residents $50,649 for tuition, fees, room, and board. (The price for in-state residents is only $27,770.) To be sure, many students at the most-expensive institutions are paying significantly less than the sticker price, thanks to financial aid."MP: The College Board also reported last week that tuition at public universities has been increasing even faster than tuition at private universities (see CD post here), so it's not surprising that a public university made it into the "50K Club."  Over the last decade the average annual real increase in public college tuition of 5.6% is almost double the 3% average real increase in private college tuition. And it's highly likely that the increases in taxpayer-funded financial aid is the "enabling force" that allows colleges, both public and private, to continually raise tuition well above the rate of inflation year after year, fueling the unsustainable higher education bubble shown below: