Reports Roosevelt Network

The Financialization of Higher Education

September 19, 2016

By Dominic Russel, Alan Smith, Carrie Sloan

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Higher education in the U.S. is in a state of crisis. We see evidence of this crisis in huge cuts in funding for public schools, skyrocketing costs of attendance at both private and public schools, and increases in student debt burdens.


Financialization has a number of disturbing consequences for higher education, including increases in overall borrowing by colleges and universities, increases in the cost of interest payments on debt on a per-student basis, and a concentration of endowment assets at a small group of the wealthiest institutions—a form of concentration of wealth. This research is brought to you by the biggest victims of these deals: the students who have been shut out of the decisions that will shape their future.

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