The Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 created regulations affecting college textbook publishers and colleges and universities regarding what information they give to students and professors regarding textbook updates and prices; the regulations also require that textbook publishers offer textbooks without bundling. Bundling refers to including CDs, DVDs, website passcodes, and other ancillaries and supplements as part of the textbook, which often increases prices.
Nicole Allen of The Student Pirgs just issued a press release with pertinent details of the law [highlights are mine]:
NEW FEDERAL LAW WILL CURB SKYROCKETING TEXTBOOK COSTS
Regulations open doors to lower cost alternatives for students, faculty
WASHINGTON – A groundbreaking federal law designed to tackle the rapidly rising cost of textbooks has kicked in just in time to impact college students this fall. The law, which was part of the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) passed by Congress in 2008, is considered the first major federal action on this issue.
“Today, the average college student spends between $800 and $1,200 on textbooks every year,” said U.S. Senator Dick Durbin who authored the original version of the law. “The Higher Education Act Reauthorization finally gave students access to the information and options they need to make educated decisions about managing their finances in school. My Open College Textbook Act would go further by using the potential of technology to further improve college access, learning and affordability for all students.”
Earlier today, Durbin joined student and faculty representatives on a conference call to explain the new regulations and how they will impact textbook costs. Overall, the consensus was that the law was a change for the better.
“This is a huge victory for students,” said Rashi Mangalick, a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and board chair of WISPIRG. “It will help us manage our costs now while also lowering prices in the long run.”
The new law, which went into effect on July 1st, contains three main provisions:
1. Publishers must disclose textbook price and revision information to faculty during the marketing process. A study by the Student PIRGs found that such details were often left out; 77% of the professors surveyed said publishers rarely or never offered textbook prices unasked.
“Professors share students’ concern about cost and generally would prefer to assign less expensive books,” said Dr. D. Steven White, Professor of Marketing & International Business at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth. “The new law empowers professors to readily identify lower-cost options that suit their instructional needs.”
2. Publishers must offer unbundled versions of textbooks. “Bundling,” or the practice of packing textbooks with CDs, pass-codes and other ancillaries that often go unused, can increase costs 10-50% according to PIRG research. From now on, students will have the option to purchase only the items they need.
3. Colleges must include the list of assigned textbooks during course registration. With advance notice, students can plan ahead for the full cost of their next term, and they have time to shop around for the best deals on their books.
“More cost saving options are available now than ever before. Students can save hundreds by shopping for discounts online, renting, and trading used books with other students,” said Nicole Allen, Textbooks Advocate for the Student PIRGs. “The next step is to make sure textbooks are affordable in the first place.”
Another theme that emerged was that open-source textbooks would play a prominent role in future efforts to reduce costs. Open textbooks are digital books that, unlike conventional e-books, are licensed to be free online and affordable to purchase in print. While currently available for a limited number of courses, budding efforts to create open textbooks – including publishing company Flat World Knowledge and Durbin’s legislation – promise greater availability in coming years.
White is one of thousands of professors nationwide already exploring the use of open textbooks in college classrooms. This fall, he estimates that switching to open textbooks will save his 98 students approximately $11,000.
“Affordable, high-quality alternatives like open textbooks could mean serious competition for traditional publishers,” noted Dr. White. “Especially now that professors know how much books cost.”
For more information on the law, visit www.studentpirgs.org/textbooks/heoa.
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I strongly favor increased choice and open information. I am concerned that the government is regulating something that the market itself could regulate. For example, profs could let textbook companies know that they want unbundled textbooks.
And I see other potential problems. Sometimes a prof may be forced into a textbook decision earlier than she would like to for a new course, perhaps excluding better texts that would have been discovered later on.
What are your thoughts on these new regulations? Who’s helped, and how much? Who’s hurt, and why?
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As a professor who had to deal with these types of text issues for decades, I welcome the part about unbundling. I have been whining to the textbook reps for years, asking them to unbundle. They won’t do it, because it’s very profitable and they don’t care what profs say. I think a law forcing unbundling is no problemo. BTW, I got around the publishers by either having no book and just readings, or putting the book in the library for check-out. Their loss.
However, there should not be legislation forcing profs to post the book long before class starts for many reasons. First, the prof may be waiting for a certain book or better edition to come out before saying. Second, the instructor may not know she’s teaching a given class until the last second, and may not want to use a book she did not choose. Third, the last thing faculty want is for students to “shop” based on which class has the fewest or cheapest readings. A crappy professor may say “no book” and get a lot of students, who will later wish they had gone with someone better. This is bad legislation.
Eric, you make excellent points. We both agree that the worst part of this is forcing instructors to identify the books they’ll use long before the class actually starts, and for all the reasons you identify. If I was still teaching, I would be very uncomfortable with that provision.
I’m concerned students will focus too much on the cost of textbooks and not enough on what they actually should be learning.
I fully agree that choice is good. If profs don’t intend to use the extra materials bundled with their book, then it will save students a lot of money if their profs have the option of selecting the textbook alone for their students. Seeing the textbooks for each course while registering could be beneficial for students not only for financial preparation but also for trying to balance the workload for the semester/quarter by seeing how much reading might be involved in each course. But, while I think that could potentially be a cool feature for students, I agree that it could negatively affect the instructors, especially for last-minute teaching assignments. It would be unpleasant to be forced to teach from a book you don’t like and did not choose and this could really negatively affect the quality of the course (depending on the instructor’s flexibility, creativity, etc.). I am also put off by the idea of “shopping” for the cheapest courses (as mentioned in the previous post). I think the third part of this law could end up negatively affecting instructors and course quality more than it benefits students. I would be really interested to hear a current student’s point of view on this issue.
Dionne, these regulations do a lot to help students pay lower prices for textbooks, but they don’t do much to add to the quality of instruction students will receive.
The number of students who sell back their books at the end of the semester dismays me. I kept nearly all of my college textbooks, primarily for reference, but also to refresh what I learned.
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