Posted on 01/13/2020 5:57:07 AM PST by karpov
As college textbook prices have increased 88 percent since 2006, education reformers wonder how universities can make books more affordable. One simple thing they could do is to stop selling textbooks with absurdly high mark-ups, the difference between the cost incurred by the bookstore for textbooks and the price at which they’re sold. While some progress has been made within the UNC system, much room for improvement remains.
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, for example, signed a contract with Barnes and Noble in 2009 to merge its university bookstore with Barnes and Noble. That conjunction promised students lower book prices, bringing down the mark-up from 23 percent to 18 percent. However, merging the bookstore has meant that students still pay higher prices than they would if they bought books from an online competitor or the book publisher. The rationale for the merger may have been affordability, but textbooks remain expensive for students who trust UNC-Charlotte’s bookstore to offer the best price.
When students feel they’ve been overcharged, they take to social media to let the bookstore know. On the Barnes and Noble UNCC Facebook page, one student left a review describing how the bookstore charged him $115 to rent a used textbook—which he found on Amazon for $15. “Barnes and Noble needs to be boycotted for exploiting college students for insane profits. I will never spend a dime there again,” he wrote. Another student left a review stating that the bookstore sold an access code for his textbook for $96, but he discovered that the code was available through the publisher for $55. Yet another student left a negative review, writing that bookstore employees told him that he could return books on a certain day, and then refused to accept his books when he came back.
(Excerpt) Read more at jamesgmartin.center ...
I was told by a local college (the Math Department Chair) that professors are not permitted to tell students that they can get their books for less online. I find that disgusting.
Equally disgusting are professors whose required textbooks are the ones he/she wrote. I remember that from back in the '80s.
My son buys all of his books online an it is ridiculously cheaper than the campus bookstore.
Good for them. Universities keep charging higher and higher prices for things students don't need, or can get elsewhere, including "education." So much of what universities "provide" today has little to do with what students need to get ahead in the world, and it comes at a huge expense.
When are students going to stand up and refuse to pay for Leftist propaganda that is being shoved down their throats in the guise of education?
It's a mystery to me that publishers haven't agreed to a single e-book standard -- it would cut printing costs, and the titles would always be in an up-to-date edition, AND there could be an expiration date on each copy. Idiots.
Agreed. Both violate an implied duty to put the interests of the students first.
Most professors spill the beans.
You might think that is unfair; however, professors have to write their own curriculum for the course. Sometimes that is an act of compiling appropriate material from several other sources. Perhaps you think it would be better for students to be required to purchase seven or eight much more expensive books instead.
I hope so, but it’s still wrong to tell them they are not allowed to inform their students.
As an engineering student I hated that the textbook companies put out a new edition of the core calc / diff EQ textbooks every two years (you could see it in the front page material) which were always identical to prior editions except for the problems, which they changed slightly. Because the profs assigned those problems for homework, you had to buy the full priced version, the used one was useless even though the content was identical because math is always the same. So shady.
College Textbooks are like class rings. Total scam industry
Worst are the professors who require you to buy a textbook they wrote...
Been a scam industry for as long as I’ve been alive and sure a lot longer
Most schools, including high schools, have screwed up administrations. Teachers typically accomplish what they do in spite of the administrators.
See post #10.
Yep, and then make minor edits or updates to necessitate a new edition. That way NEW books are required every year; no resell!
My son rented/leased many of his text books. I believe it was through Amazon.
It was even cheaper than buying.
It is not like you are going to keep these books.
The only books I ever kept were specific wood technology books. Dendrology. Wood frame Construction. Simplified Design of Structural Wood. I still have these 35 years later.
My kids rented all of their’s from Cheggs.
I remember paying something like $75 for an Econ book in the early 80’s and getting $3 back when I resold it.
My daughter discovered that on her own. Why was she looking for bargains? We told her we'd pay her college tuition and room and board, but her books and spending money were her responsibility. She worked summers to earn money for books and spending money and earned some money at college babysitting for one of her professors.
A textbook is $200-$300 today.
College students already know to check online bookstores like Amazon for lower prices.
But, the lower prices are still too high. So, the students rent or buy access to the digital textbook.
No matter what, the prices are highway robbery.
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