With the high cost of university education, many students graduate while still being fettered by their student loan debt. Aside from the expensive tuition, the price of the textbooks is also one of the major factors that have augmented the financial distress of the university students. In Michael Enright’s podcast “Textbook prices that break the bank”, the consecutive rise in the price for university textbooks is discussed. Enright highlights the 834% increase in price over the past three decades and the swift growth is further emphasized as “[it] is more than double the rate of increase in house prices”.

It is a business that possesses a high probability as the mandatory textbooks hold the consumers captive. However, universities such as UBC have made effort as options such as rental and buybacks are offered to the students.

In my opinion, with the rapid growth in technology, perhaps the concept of hard copy textbook may soon become obsolete. As more and more universities rely on the digital technology, the transition of the textbook format from paper to electronic may very well be a possibility. However, while the E-Textbooks may provide convenience for the students, it will be harder for the distributers to maintain the value of the information as the idea of authorship is often made obscure in the digital world.

References:

http://www.cbc.ca/thesundayedition/essays/2014/09/21/textbook-prices-that-break-the-bank/

http://bookstore.ubc.ca/customer-service/faqs/textbook-costs