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Students
74%
74% of students said they had been assigned at least one free or non-paid-for material this year.
37%
Student preference for digital materials (37%) surpassed preference for print materials (33%) for the second year in a row.
51%
Outside of access programs, more than half (51%) of purchased course materials were made at campus stores.
Source: Student Watch™ Attitudes and Behaviors toward Course Materials 2025 Report.
Faculty
3.4
Faculty required 3.4 materials on average across the 3.7 courses they taught for the 2025-26 academic year. This remains the lowest number of materials required by faculty since Faculty Watch began tracking this measure in 2016.
63%
For this first time since Faculty Watch began tracking format use, print is no longer the most widely used course material format by faculty. Just 63% of faculty used print this year compared to 71% using e-books.
47%
47% of faculty reported using open educational resources this year. About a third reported that concerns about quality were a barrier to using OER.
56%
More than half (56%) of faculty who have not participated in a course-by-course access program say they are interested in participating. About the same percentage were interested in participating in an all-courses access program.
73%
Almost all faculty report that students are first required to use their book in either the first (73%) or second (20%) week of class.
Source: Faculty Watch: Attitudes & behaviors toward Course Materials 2025.
Industry
4000
5.2
Median annual sales for U.S. college stores were $4.9 million in 2019-20 and 5.2 million in 2020-21
$490
The average estimated college store revenue per FTE (full time enrolled student) is $490.
Source: NACS Independent Campus Store Financial Survey from 2020-21 academic year
