"A price index tracking higher education costs rose by a modest 3.6 percent this year," the Associated Press reports. "But the index doesn't take into account soaring utility prices in the past several months. The Commonfund Institute, based in Wilton, Conn., relies on last year's costs for utilities and supplies and materials since only preliminary figures are available for the year ending June 30. But preliminary figures indicate utilities alone grew by 13.7 percent, compared to the 0.9 percent growth from 2007 used in calculating Commonfund's 2008 figure."