The Pros And Cons Of Textbooks

As college students, we are pretty short on money. College is expensive, but that shouldn’t be a reason for people to miss an opportunity for a higher education. That being said textbooks are way too expensive for students, and we should stop paying such high prices for them. Today I’ll be talking about the problem with high priced textbooks, how universities should fix the problem, and what you can do to help. Prices of textbooks are reaching an all-time high. According to the College Board, the average student spends 1200-1300 on books and supplies each year. That is an 812% increase from 1978. Textbooks are getting so expensive some students decide not to buy them even though it could jeopardize their grade. David Wiley, Co-Founder of Lumen Learning said "The degree of unaffordability is getting to the point that it 's hurting learning,". In a 10,000 person survey, Bookboon.com found that 75% of students are not buying required textbooks. Instead, they are searching for alternatives online or borrowing classmates textbooks to dodge the high prices. Instructors pick which textbook is used for their class, usually picking what works best for them without factoring in price. Many people believe students prefer hard textbooks instead of e-books, but the same survery done by Bookboon.com shows that 58% of students actually prefer digital e-books rather than paper textbooks. They are easy to carry, easy to read, and cheaper! Another problem with textbooks other than price is usage. The same survey shows us that 48.4 % of students sometimes only use one-three chapters’ of their textbooks. For example, last semester I purchased two textbooks for one accounting class. Both textbooks were 150 dollars apiece. At the end of the semester I only used one page out of my 150$ dollar text book that I could’ve printed out for free if I were given the option. According to the Student Public Interest Research group, the reason text book prices are high is because 5 companies control the textbook market. …show more content…
Since they have very little competition they are able to drive up prices. University’s should buy textbooks and loan them out to students. Students should pay a renters fee at the beging of the semester, and should have the choice to buy or return the book at the end. This would save both the university, and student, time, and money. Another thing university’s should do is use open source textbooks. Open source are online textbooks similar to Cengage. With no production value, open source textbooks are a lot cheaper, many are free and you can access them from any computer. According to a report by US NEWS, if every student at the University of Wisconsin used just one open source book instead of a textbook, it would generate over 6 million in savings in just one year. Imagine how much students would save if every university switched to open source books. According to C. Edward Watson, director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Georgia said “the imperfect free textbook is better than the imperfect expensive textbook,". This will also help with the Buy Back situation. When students return a textbook they only get about 50% value back if that even. With open source there would be nothing to return since it’s free, saving the university and students money. While what the university