Posted on 12/08/2024 7:39:35 AM PST by karpov
Institutions of higher education are bracing for a crunch, if they aren’t experiencing one already. Slowing population growth, mounting skepticism of academia, and various other factors have provoked college leaders—at least perceptive ones—to craft novel strategies to navigate these perilous waters. Universities will be increasingly competing for a shrinking pool of customers in the years to come. How these institutions differentiate themselves and win over students will determine their ability to survive in the 21st century.
Universities, like firms in any stagnating market, will need to find new revenue sources or cut costs. There is no other way out of this conundrum. As Beth Akers, an economist studying higher education, has argued, the looming crunch may actually benefit students: “Higher education, the golden child of the movement to advance social mobility, has rested on its laurels and failed to incorporate innovations that will better serve students and our nation.” Necessity is the mother of invention. Declining revenues coupled with fierce competition may be what universities need to slash waste and deliver economic results for students.
In light of such shifts, a growing share of institutions are weighing the adoption of differential tuition (DT) policies. Conceptually, the model is simple. Instead of charging a flat rate for tuition regardless of major area or degree program, universities charge tuition based on the instructional costs of particular areas of study. Mechanical engineering majors, for instance, would likely pay higher tuition than English majors at a university implementing DT.
Universities are adopting DT for several reasons. For one, paying at the program level reduces if not eliminates the cross-subsidization implicit in charging a flat rate for all programs. No longer would lower-cost degree recipients pay a “premium” that partially funds more expensive degree programs. You get what you pay for.
(Excerpt) Read more at jamesgmartin.center ...
Joe Paterno is probably more responsible for the building boom at Penn State over the last few decades.
And the suits threw him under the bus - as he was sick and dying - trying to cover their own mistakes.
That’s when I lost all respect for college administrators.
Things only got worse with DEI and the anti-Semitism of late.
We need literate people to become lawyers, politicians and journalists and mastery of English is a good grounding. Our problems are that universities drove themselves off a cliff.
> These kids are getting taken advantage of beyond reason… <
Yep. Part of the problem is how college advisors shamelessly mislead new students.
Say you want to be an engineering major. Your engineering advisor will hand you a paper laying out the required courses. The paper will also tell you what you can do with such a degree. So far, so good.
Now suppose you want to be a theater arts major. Your theater arts advisor will hand you a paper laying out the required courses. And the paper will tell you what you can do with such a degree.
That theater arts paper will be filled with exaggerations and lies. It will make it look like a theater arts degree is more valuable than an engineering degree.
This is what happened to a child of a friend of mine.
Sure, a theater arts student must do his own due diligence. But he’s being fooled from the moment he steps on campus.
“Of what use is a degree in English, other than to become an English teacher?”
Ask the retired public-school teachers on $60,000+/year pensions.
reading
writing
arithmetic
I agree with what you are trying to achieve but much of what is at the community college level should have already been taught in high school.
Until failures like the department of education and No Child Left Behind are flushed there can be no progress. The present conversation on education often degenerates into one of arguing over what statue belongs at the pinnacle rather than addressing the collapsing foundation.
Should government fund "forgivable" loans for tuition at all? No. Zilch. Zip. Nada.
If students had to pay back what they borrowed without any "assistance" from taxpayers, the tuition escalation merry-go-round would grind to a halt. Fast.
Remember, this game was an Obama scheme.....
If properly taught, a humanities/liberal arts curriculum should be quite challenging and should make students familiar with the Great Books of Western civilization.
They have certainly ruined K thru 12, as far as teaching anything important. Education needs a total overhaul at every level.
No, it’s football that pays the football coaches.
That depends entirely upon your personal goals. Modern times have confused the purpose of "higher education". Originally, universities were intended to round out the gentleman. Learned people wanted to master their own language as well as other languages. Learning history, philosophy, arts, and literature is part of becoming "well rounded". These serve the soul of the man and supposedly prepare him to become a solid citizen. Topics like Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Mathematics, and various Engineering degrees were hosted by universities due to their esoteric natures. It was natural to pursue those endeavors at the university level. In short, universities were not intended to be trade schools; and, those originally existed in ample supply.
Starting around the 1960s, I suppose, employers began requiring college degrees for new hires. Software skills were in high demand, and those without college degrees could master them in certain problem domains. Requiring college degrees for software jobs was a reliable method of narrowing down the applicant base of potential hires. I recall being among a rare breed with my Computer Science degree even in the early 1970s.
As time wore on, employers were demanding degrees for prospective employees even for those jobs which had no need of "the whole man". A mad scramble into the universities followed in order for the population be considered for employment. Some people went off to college to avoid the draft as well. Requirements for college degrees for almost every form of employment expanded rather stupidly. I suspect lazy HR departments would try anything to narrow the field of job applicants.
So, yes, trade schools need to brought back in large numbers. Apprenticeship programs would also be a big help. This entire problem is intensified with the loss of our industrial base and a monumental shift to software solutions to all domains.
An unintended consequence of differential tuition would be that the successful graduates earning more from science related curricula might be less inclined to make charitable contributions to the university’s student funds and foundations. If I’ve already paid more for my education than others in less rigorous majors, I’m not likely to reward that approach with charitable donations. And the less rigorous majors are less likely to turn out graduates who would make up that difference.
I agree 100%. My son wanted to pursue a degree in philosophy. I refused to pay for it unless he went and got a marketable trade at a community college first. He went through the welding program and got an associates degree in welding. Now he’s making me pay for his philosophy degree lol. I call him the philosophical welder.
“ That theater arts paper will be filled with exaggerations and lies. It will make it look like a theater arts degree is more valuable than an engineering degree.”
Parents need to quit relying on school personnel to guide their kids
Talk about these things over burgers At chilis or in traffic
Parents need to quit relying on school personnel to guide their kids
Talk about these things over burgers At chilis or in traffic
And read and be informed.
Becoming a writer of any sort. It is easy to lose sight of the value of being literate in the Land of the Cellular Phone.
Today's youngsters can't even write a decent datasheet for the fruits of their engineering endeavor. Its pathetic, really.
People with actual skills who want to teach are already in short supply. Arbitrarily increasing the number of schools guarantees a reduction in qualified teachers and a reduction in the quality of that education. For many trades, apprenticeship programs are probably a better solution.
People with actual skills who want to teach are already in short supply. Arbitrarily increasing the number of schools guarantees a reduction in qualified teachers and a reduction in the quality of that education. For many trades, apprenticeship programs are probably a better solution.
Philosophy - one of the best courses I ever took was in classical logic. Syllogisms with all their existential modifiers rock.
Only at division 1 schools.
Much of that should be done in college prep classes at the K12 level. Yes, I know they aren’t.
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