Princeton University President and AAU Board Chair Christopher Eisgruber appeared on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal on Wednesday, December 4, to talk about the state of higher education in America. Eisgruber took calls from viewers and discussed a wide range of issues, including the importance of federal investments in university research, college access and affordability, the returns on investment from a four-year college degree, and student mental health.
“I think the current state of higher education is terrific in the United States,” Eisgruber told host Mimi Geerges. “Part of the evidence for that is that people all around the world seek to come to these universities as students and faculty members. The return on investment from a four-year college degree, which is what all of us in the AAU offer, is tremendous,” he said, continuing: “And the research that our universities produce is a difference-maker in terms of our health, in terms of our information technology, in terms of innovation, and in terms of jobs.”
Eisgruber noted that one of his priorities as the newly elected chair of the AAU Board of Directors will be to advocate for robust federal investments in university-based scientific research and to reinvigorate the research partnership between the government and the nation’s universities, which has led to many of the world’s greatest scientific and technological breakthroughs. “So, one of the things that I want to do is work very carefully and closely with president of the AAU, Barbara Snyder, to support that funding in Congress,” he said.
Eisgruber also addressed questions about why a college degree is so expensive. He noted that, in fact, “The actual cost that people pay for higher education over the past four to five years hasn’t been going up, it hasn’t even been going up at the rate of inflation, it’s been going down.”
Eisgruber acknowledged that the sticker price of tuition has indeed gone up but explained that “what people actually pay is the sticker price minus financial aid at institutions, and institutions, including [Princeton], have been raising dollars from alumni and from endowments, so in fact our education is more affordable than ever.”
At Princeton, for example, Eisgruber noted, 71% of all students receive financial aid – and that’s because the university is spending proceeds from its endowment on scholarships. The reason why “the affordability of American universities is getting better and better is because those of us with endowments are deploying them aggressively … to create scholarship opportunities that didn’t exist before,” he said.
Kritika Agarwal is senior editorial officer at AAU.