Economic cost analysis in higher education: The university of mid-America and traditional institutions compared

Economic cost analysis is a method of looking at resources and measuring the efficiency with which those resources are used to attain goals. The author first discusses some methodology for and problems inherent in analyzing economic costs of educational institutions and then presents findings from cost studies of higher education institutions of two types—(1) the University of Mid-America, a regional open university with central management offices in Lincoln, Nebraska, and state organizations in Kansas, Iowa, and Nebraska through which students can enroll in televised credit courses, and (2) a sample of traditional institutions of higher education in Indiana.