Stanford tuition from 1920 through 1993 [1]:

    Year    Tuition    Annual Growth
    1920    120       
    1930    300        9.60%
    1940    345        1.41%
    1950    660        6.70%
    1960    1005       4.29%
    1970    2400       9.09%
    1980    6285       10.11%
    1990    14280      8.55%
    1991    15102      5.76%
    1992    16536      9.50%
    1993    17775      7.49%
    1994    18669      5.03%
    1995    19695      5.50%
    1996    20490      4.04%
    1997    21300      3.95%
    1998    22110      3.80%
    1999    23058      4.29%
    2000    24441      6.00%
    2001    25917      6.04%
    2002    27204      4.97%
    2003    28563      5.00%
    2004    29847      4.50%
    2005    31200      4.53%
    2006    32994      5.75%
    2007    34800      5.47%
    2008    36030      3.53%
    2009    37380      3.75%
    2010    38700      3.53%
    2011    40050      3.49%
    2012    41250      3.00%
    2013    42690      3.49%

Note: the growth column I added is annual growth. It is the annual rate tuition would have had to rise to get from one line of the table to the next.

I don't see much support in this data for the claim many are making in comments here that government backed student loans are responsible (or even a significant factor in...) tuition growth.

It would be interesting if someone with better internet research skills than me could dig up data for other schools (in particular, it would be nice to get data from some public schools) and see what that looks like.

[1] http://facts.stanford.edu/administration/finances