Certain stores are notorious for jacking up prices and then offering high discount coupons.
Apparently, those huckstering ways have made it into the world of academe.

It appears that even behind the ivy covered walls, There Is No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101463783

Feldman and co-author Robert Archibald analyzed the effect of financial aid offers, or tuition discounts, on tuition between the 1994–1995 and 2003–2004 school years. The average grant to students at public four-year institutions more than doubled over that time, and the two economists calculated that the extra discounting pushed up tuition an extra 4.5 percent. Put another way, the extra discounting accounted for 6.7 percent of the 72 percent tuition increase.

The change was significantly more dramatic at private four-year institutions. Average aid grants to students more than doubled at these schools as well, and the economists found that increased discounting pushed up list-price tuition by 14.5 percent. That represented 30.7 percent of the 62 percent tuition increase over the period.