Mark Perry is concurrently a scholar at AEI and a professor of economics and finance at the University of Michigan's Flint campus.

Over the past few years, he has written a number of interesting articles tracking the alarming rise of college textbook prices.  His latest article, published this week, disects the era of $400 textbooks and lists the 15 most expensive textbooks at the University of Michigan-Flint.  Here’s the link.

In this article, Mr. Perry updates charts illustrating how the cost of college textbooks is outpacing the national Consumer Price Index as well as recreational book prices:

The rallying cry against high textbook costs is now ubiquitous across college campuses.  Administrators, faculty, students and parents have all complained as textbooks prices continue to climb.

Recent studies have shown that many students are opting not to buy all the textbooks
for their courses due to these high prices, leading to students being less prepared for class and negatively impacting their academic performance.

While the high prices of textbooks affect all students, there is a hidden and massive cost for students on financial aid loans - which could be adding as much as $4 billion to the spiraling student debt load a year - that has not yet been a part of this very important discussion.

As schools throughout the country focus more on textbook affordability and student success, we are pleased to announce the addition of Joe Diggins to the Akademos team.  As Senior Regional Sales Manager, Joe will focus on providing support and consultation to schools in the Western United States to help meet the rapid growth in conversations we are having with administrators about innovative bookstore solutions.

This is a very important and sometimes difficult question to answer. However, there’s a good chance that more students than you think are purchasing course materials outside of your campus bookstore or even deciding not to purchase their materials at all.

Many administrators don’t have the data or easy methods to quickly make this determination. Even if it looks like your campus bookstore sales are strong, you may have a significant percentage of students who arenot purchasing through the bookstore, which based upon current trends will only continue to grow over time.

A recurring theme of declining college textbook & course materials sales due to students abandoning the official campus bookstore has surfaced in our discussions with many higher education institutions.

Update: If you missed this webinar, email us at webinar@akademos.com to view a recorded version of the presentation.

In order to help us accommodate our rapid sales growth, I am pleased to announce the addition of two new Senior Regional Sales Managers, Leslie Sands and Shana Neely to the Akademos team.