For decades, college costs — and student debt totals — steadily grew. Georgetown University researchers recently analyzed U.S. Census, Bureau of Labor Statistics and National Center for Education Statistics data and found that from 1980 to 2019, college costs increased by 169%. But recently, this trend has been slowing.
When the coronavirus pandemic began and forced colleges to send students home, some experts predicted that the pandemic would force college prices to plateau. In 2020, researchers found reasons for optimism but maintained it was too soon to determine the long-term impacts of the pandemic on higher education.
