Education at What Price

THE Corporation last week approved tuition for 1988-89 of $18,210, a 6.5 percent hike over last year's figure. The explanations for the hike, which once again greatly outpaces inflation, deserve to be viewed with skepticism.

Over the past several years, Harvard has sought to justify its tuition hikes with the argument that they have had to take on more of a burden because of the Reagan Administration's attempts to slash federal funds for higher education. However, Congress has never agreed to these cuts in the past and, in fact, is about to approve an education budget granting record amounts for student aid and for scientific research.

Harvard financial aid officials say that the tuition increase will not hurt the two-thirds of the student population that receives financial aid. They say the University will raise scholarships and financial aid by 7.7 percent, to $20.6 million. Yet a tuition increase of more than $1,000 is bound to add further burdens to students already strapped with debt.

FOR the past several years the University has used increasing sums from its endowment to supplement tuition. It should now dip further into this pool to ensure that lower and middle-income students will not be forced to choose between assuming enormous amounts of debt or foregoing Harvard.

Clearly, Harvard and other Ivy League colleges are not "greedy", as Secretary of Education William J. Bennett has suggested. The costs of running a major research university are enormous, and many universities are still trying to make up for the costs foregone in faculty salaries and plant maintenance during the late 1970s, when inflation soared and tuition costs remained relatively stable.

Yet with the recent charges by the president of Kalamazoo College that many of the nation's most prestigious colleges feel they can get away with exorbitant tuition costs, the reasons for the Harvard hike merit increasing attention. With its reputation, Harvard is bound to attract the nation's top students, perhaps no matter how high the price. Harvard should consider those who shoulder the burden of a costly education the next time it calculates the tuition.