The California Public Interest Research Group is conducting a
survey to research the reasons behind increasing textbook prices at
universities.
The study, which will be published early next year, will contain
student, faculty and bookstore surveys regarding textbook sales and
prices and will offer price comparisons between textbooks at
different universities.
CalPIRG hopes the report will spark either legislative action or
a boycott by students and faculty against publishers, said Jolene
Mitchell, a second-year mathematics student and leader of the
CalPIRG investigation.
Recent student surveys lay the foundation for CalPIRG’s
study. The surveys showed the average student at UCLA and UC
Berkeley spends $350 per term on textbooks. A new textbook costs
$85 on average, compared to only $63 for the same used textbook
available to students if no new editions were published, according
to CalPIRG. Books in physical sciences, economics and math are the
most expensive.
“In math, simple solutions are considered elegant, so the
books contain less explanation but are still expensive,” said
fourth-year mathematics student Andrew Hahn, whose
“Principles of Mathematical Analysis” textbook cost
$119.
Mitchell believes the source of the problem is publishing houses
using new editions to accumulate profit. She said a publisher
looking to rake in profits typically collects around 7 percent
profit after taxes from textbook sales. She also said while faculty
would like to save students money by allowing used textbooks in
classes, they often do not have much choice.
“Professors are forced to buy the new edition because the
old ones stop being published,” Mitchell said. “They
don’t want the used books because they may not get enough for
the class.”
Publishers say they produce new editions to stay in business.
Amy Gwiazdowski, a spokeswoman for the Association of American
Publishers, said the revised editions are usually produced because
“a lot of professors and instructors have been unwilling to
adopt textbooks that are three or four years old because
they’re perceived as out of date.”
Used textbook sales force publishers to print new editions, said
Michelle Sala, a senior account manager for McGraw-Hill.
“Publishers put out new editions to compete against the
bookstores who sell used editions to make more money,” Sala
said.
Two years after a new edition hits the shelves, almost every
student has access to a used copy, and as few as 20 percent buy new
editions, she said.
But Mitchell said new editions are superfluous, and often the
only changes in new editions are page numbers and chapter order.
Many new editions also contain CD-ROMs, Web page access codes,
workbooks and other supplemental materials that increase the price
of the book, materials that many students find unnecessary.
Arthur Gibson, who publishes his own reader for his Life Science
1 course and saves students over $70 by charging them less than the
price of the class’s standard textbook, said publishers
overcharge for minimal changes in new editions.
“A publisher wants to take your materials, add
illustrations, cut this and add that, and upgrade the cover and
paper, and, in the end, charges students at least twice the
cost,” Gibson said.
Publishers print large volumes to cover a subject
comprehensively, guaranteeing more buyers, Gibson said. This
technique results in overpriced volumes that contain material
largely irrelevant to a course.
Gwiazdowski said producing books is a matter of making sure the
information is up to date and current for the student and
instructor, not a matter of overloading the texts with
material.