College affordability is about more than tuition

Like millions of families around the country, August is a busy month for ours as we prepare for a new school year. This year will be more hectic than usual, as our oldest son heads to college for the first time.

Still, this year feels different in other ways. The national debate about college affordability continues to gain momentum and is now a year-round story, rather than a one-and-done at the start of a new semester.

While much of the current debate is about free tuition, the many other college costs -- housing, food, transportation, childcare, textbooks – have the potential to make or break a student’s college experience. It’s this last one – textbooks – that I’ll focus on here given my role as an education company CEO.

I’m often asked, “why are textbooks so expensive?” The short answer is that companies, including ours, used to raise prices to make up for lost sales. And the reason sales were declining is because the marketplace finally took over: students found cheaper options, like used, borrowing or even counterfeit books.

To further understand students’ opinions, our company did a survey last year where they told us that buying textbooks is their biggest source of financial stress after paying the tuition bill. That’s unconscionable.  Enough is enough.

I firmly believe the textbook publishing industry must do more to make the college experience affordable. Our materials need to be truly valuable for students – high quality, a good user experience and at a price that makes sense to them.

While our company (and the industry as a whole) has made significant investments in quality learning materials, what difference does it make if students can’t afford them?

That’s why we created Cengage Unlimited: a subscription that offers students an affordable option to access textbooks and course materials. In less than twelve months, more than one million subscriptions have been sold – faster than Netflix, Spotify and Rent the Runway.  

Most importantly, the subscription is saving students real money -- $60 million last year alone. We expect the savings to grow to $160 million by the end of the 2019-20 academic year. We’ll be adding new resources, adding to those of Chegg, Kaplan Test Prep, Quizlet and Dashlane password management. And, we’ll continue to partner with like-minded organizations (most recently UNCF, the United Negro College Fund), to help lower students’ costs.

With a new year comes new promise, and I’m excited about what’s ahead for our customers, our employees and my own children. The intense focus on college affordability shows no sign of abating and I, for one, am relieved. All of us in education must be active contributors to the success of the next generation. They, and our country, are depending on us.