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.