Everyone knows that college costs more than just the number on the bill, but what costs add up the most to stress college students out. Textbooks! People always talk about how much of a pain it is to have to buy textbooks every year, but since 1978 the price of textbooks has increased 812%. Students struggle to pay these high costs for textbooks because many come to college with scholarships, but then have to pay hundreds of dollars more for textbooks.
How have textbook prices increased so much in recent years? Textbook companies have begun releasing new versions of textbooks every couple of years. They then convince professors and colleges that the new version of their book has new better information than the older versions. This forces students to buy books new and greatly diminishes the used book market. Publishers make no money off of the sale of used books so this optimizes their ability to make money from selling new books.
As a result of the diminishing used book market, students have begun renting books from various websites or the bookstore. Textbook companies however didn’t like this solution either and have begun creating codes to online textbooks that required students to pay for new textbooks. Now many companies have developed practice problems that many courses require as homework and require students to pay for special access codes.
The rising prices of textbooks have forced many students to refrain from buying them. This increases advantages given to students from higher income backgrounds because they are more likely to be able to drop $150 on a textbook, while a student from a lower income background may struggle more to make such a large purchase. Students who lack proper resources are less likely to be successful in a class, but sometimes it’s just not worth it to spend such a large sum of money for a textbook that will only help sometimes.
Some colleges have found solutions to help prevent students from having to spend these large sums of money on textbooks. One solution is that some schools are using free licensed educational materials instead of having students spend money on textbooks, however this solution is still in its early stages and very few institutions are actually using it. Others have created better rental programs for textbooks or made it so that the bookstore would buy back students books. Here is a list of websites that are available for students to rent or buy textbooks for cheaper prices. More solutions need to be made to relieve the burden of textbook expenses for students.
I’ve always believed that the increase in prevalence of online textbooks was more because of environmental concern or the demand for digital products, but this post really changed my perspective! It never crossed my mind that online textbooks was the way that textbook manufacturers were stopping the ability for students to rent or trade books for less money! I find the links that you included were very helpful, and I will definitely be using them next year!