Since 2006, the cost of college textbooks has increased by 73% - more than four times the rate of inflation. Many students have opted for cost avoidance. In the report, Fixing the Broken Textbooks Market, it states that two-thirds of students did not buy or rent some of their required reading even though their decision may have impacted their grade in a course. 90% of the students opting not to purchase textbooks understood that their decision may impact their grades.
In Connecticut, it has been projected that students at the 48 Connecticut higher education institutions spent over $147 million in textbooks alone during the 2014-2015 academic year.
Many students must utilize financial aid dollars to afford their college textbooks. Nearly 30% of all students attending public 4-year institutions use financial aid for textbook purchases while 50% of community college students must rely on financial aid for book purchases.
This report comes from a Task Force (made up of faculty, student, and administrator representation from two and four year, public and private institutions) was established to study best practices with regard to Open Educational Resources (OER).

Keywords

higher education · institutional policy · OER · OER government policy · open textbooks