Anyone who’s attended even a semester of college knows how pricey textbooks are. In recent years, there’s been some relief, thanks to a robust used-book market and the magic of Amazon. But now, it seems, textbook publishers and universities have figured out a way to keep students paying top dollar once again.

The College Journal over at WSJ reports that many universities are now requiring students to buy customized textbooks that promote or otherwise reference the schools themselves. The article uses the U of Alabama as an example. The school charges students $60 for a specialized writers’ handbook that’s identical to the $30 used version found across the country–except it includes about 30 pages describing UA’s writing dept.

The kicker, of course, is that this info is available for free on the university’s website. And to top it off, a notice on the back reads that “This book may not be bought or sold used.”

The textbook companies, in order to ensure that the schools will participate, simply throw a kickback royalty their way. Now, I’m aware that the cost of educating students is sky-high and only getting higher. Tuition prices must creep up but if they creep out of reach of students, then colleges are SOL. So what’s a school to do?

This reminds me of the same kind of unbundling that airlines are doing now: sure, your ticket may only cost a few hundred, but wait until you try to check a bag, get an aisle seat or eat. Everyone gets mad about it, but the airlines are obviously hurting. I can see the appeal for universities as well; incremental fees don’t deter the customer (ie student or parent) as much as a whopping tuition bill does.

The end result fosters mixed feelings; the universities, of course, use those additional monies in support of their academic programs. At UA,

The writing program so far has collected about $20,000 in royalties in the two years since it started requiring custom textbooks, Prof. Handa says. She adds that she regularly declines pitches from other publishers offering even higher royalties. “I feel bad enough getting $3,” she says.