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The Student PIRGs conducted this study to determine how digital textbooks can live up to their potential as a solution. Through a survey of 504 students from Oregon and Illinois and 50 commonly assigned textbook titles, we confirm three fundamental criteria – affordability, printing options, and accessibility. We found that publishers’ digital “e-textbooks” fail to meet these criteria, and that an emerging form of digital textbooks – open textbooks – are a perfect match. (August 2008)
Marking the first major federal action to curb the skyrocketing cost of college textbooks, Congress approved legislation today that will bring down prices for millions of students.
In 2007 Congress passed the College Cost Reduction and Access Act. The bill included several provisions to lessen the burden of student debt including:
- More than two billion dollars a year in additional funding for the Pell Grant program. The Pell Grant helps more than 5 million lower-income students each year.
- A new Income-Based Repayment program that allows student loan borrowers to repay their federal loans as a percentage of their income.
- Reductions in interest rates on subsidized Stafford student loans.
Over the last three years, research conducted by the Student Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs) and others have shown that textbooks are a growing cost of going to college. These studies also have found that the textbook industry is using a host of practices that drive up the price of college textbooks. In the fall of 2006, we interviewed faculty members, walked through bookstores and interviewed bookstore staff to uncover textbooks that reveal six types of textbook industry gimmicks. (October 2006)
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North Shore student Kaitlyn Heathman speaks at a press conference releasing our transportation report "Common Connections" -
Students support more affordable textbooks -
Students at UMASS Boston show off their energy efficiency knowledge -
Students at Fitchburg State table for the homeless -
UMASS Amherst students support more and better public transit -
UMASS Boston students pose with Chancellor Motley -
Students at UMASS Lowell and Dean of Students Larry Siegel support ending agricultural subsidies for unhealthy fiood
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