"Vedder's research demonstrates that America's universities have become less productive, less efficient, and more likely to use tuition money and state and federal grants to subsidize non-instructional activities such as athletics. These factors combine to produce dramatic hikes in tuition, making it more difficult for Americans to afford college." "Vedder believes that competition from for-profit universities (the fastest growing sector in higher education), computer-based distance learning, and nonuniversity certification of skills can be a powerful force for needed change. He suggests that possible solutions to the tuition crisis include modifying tenure, increasing teaching loads, paring administrative staffs, increasing distance learning, and cutting costly noneducational programs. He also suggests even more dramatic changes, including transforming state grants to universities into student voucher programs, as well as other steps to increase privatization of state universities."--Jacket.