Inflation for higher education will increase 5 percent in the 2006 fiscal year -- the largest increase since 2002 -- as colleges are experiencing increases in operational costs like utilities, according to figures released on Thursday. Although employee salaries and benefits continue to be large expenditures for colleges, they were not as much to blame for the rise in inflation this year as the increase in costs of heating oil and gas, according to Verne Sedlacek, president and chief executive officer of Commonfund.