More of the Same Old Thing (higher college costs)

I read that the University of Massachusetts is raising its tuition rates by 15 percent, while Dartmouth College is raising theirs by "only" five percent. This is in a year in which the Consumer Price Index rose by only 0.1 percent, the smallest increase in over a half a century.

It is more of the same old thing. Raise real tuition fees a lot. If legislatures won't let universities do it, they do it anyhow through the back door --new fees and charges. Slim down staff a tad, give small or no salary increases. But do not try to make Major League changes in the way we do business. And then beg Congress to throw extra billions out of airplanes to sustain the uneconomic situation for another year or two. It is all very sad.

Meanwhile, Jim Coleman shows me an article in INSIDE HIGHER ED where it is revealed that Tufts wants to limit the amount of pre-college credit that students can use for graduation. Tufts proposal is liberal compared with Williams or Boston College, which flatly will not take AP credit towards graduation. These moves are justified on some sort of quality control basis. Apparently a little AP is okay (at least at Tufts --whose faculty still have to approve the plan)--but not too much. We would not want any students graduate in three years, saving them $50,000. Let us put impediments to reducing the costs of higher education.

The new Secretary of Education Arne Duncan pleased the American College of Education audience he spoke to yesterday. Why? Apparently gone were the threats from his predeccsor demanding accountability and results. Instead, the audience heard all the platitudes about being the best system of higher education in the world.

Both of my daughters had AP credits, and some college credit course work they did in their Honors classes at the Catholic HS they both attended. My eldest daughter could have graduated after the first semester in her senior yr., but she was a music major and had some courses towards her major that she needed to complete. My youngest is set to graduate after the first semester in her senior year. These AP and honors credit courses really help with the costs of college, and my youngest is attending a state school and it is still outrageous.

Here in Washington State, they had an article in the local (soon to be deceased) Seattle paper about a month or so ago saying that the State was looking to allow the state colleges to raise their tuitions as much as 16%.

I love when the politicians tell you they are going to make college more "affordable"; but the way they do that is to allow you to go deeper into debt. It is never to look at why the cost of college is going up so much faster than the cost of living.

Rises in tuition tend to correlate with the amount of federal aid offered to students in terms of loans and grants. Whenever government increases help to the students, the universities increase the cost so the students end up in the same relative spot, except further in debt in the case of loans. Universities would be offended if they were expected to track CPI increases. They are, after all, “not one of those scrubby businesses” but something infinitely higher and inspired. (I used to work at a university as an administrator, believe me, that opinion is widespread. A down-to-earth professor now administrator once commented to me that as far as universities are concerned, the French Revolution never occurred.)

In addition to aid influencing tuition, there is the trend for the schools to serve as post-high schools, teaching the kids things they should have learned in high school. A whole lot of courses now are remedial and essentially waste the time and money of universities. Add to that the burgeoning number of students who come on grants and scholarships for political correctness purposes, add to that the probable lack of donations by the few that actually get degrees, the common practice of students taking five, six, seven or more years to get a Bachelor’s degree, and costs skyrocket. Then add in the pre-French Revolution notion that the really “good” professors shouldn’t have to sully themselves to actually teach more than one class a semester and, if the administrators don’t agree, said professor will decamp to another university.

They have placed themselves in a trap and are expecting you, the non-needs-based parent to bear the cost of not just your offspring but all those who aren’t paying full price. Incidentally, this is why a lot of foreign students are at universities: not because of diversity or giving them a chance to access the U.S. education system but because they pay full tuition most of the time.

Universities would be offended if they were expected to track CPI increases.

My daughter's University just announced that we will be paying nine percent more than last year for her Senior year.

I am paying 100 percent of her tuition and costs after a few small scholarships (high grade point)and am bearing the brunt of having to help subsidize a bunch of freeloaders who go to the same University, get terrible grades while majoring in a worthless degree.

Incidentally, this is why a lot of foreign students are at universities: not because of diversity or giving them a chance to access the U.S. education system but because they pay full tuition most of the time.

My University's College of Engineering reserved almost 50 percent of the openings for foreign students because back in the early 1980s they were paying about $900 per credit hour while we paid about $50.

The foreign students were allowed in our College of Engineering as Juniors if they maintained the University grade point average which at that time was about 2.2.

The US students, including myself, had to compete and were only allowed in if they had a 3.2 or better and then during my Senior year we were billed an extra $300 per term just for the privilege of being in the College of Engineering.

The foreign students were not charged the extra $300.

Rises in tuition tend to correlate with the amount of federal aid offered to students in terms of loans and grants.

I am not sure if that is true any longer. Until 2006, federal aid, especially grants was growing much slower. I am not sure about the correlation with subsidized loans.

Even if your assertion is true, correlation does not equal causation. The increased aid is more of a lagging indicator rather than a predictor.

I have been a university professor for 25 years so I understand the university mindset well. I have not been an administrator because my beliefs would not be tolerated. Universities raise tuition because they can. There is a lack of competition requiring efficiency. University education is delivered in the same manner it was 50 years ago except for computer labs and campus networks. When we innovate, we charge even more. Online university courses are generally more expensive than traditional classes. You may find that fact surprising but it is true.

Universities are the ultimate cottage industry. Every reasonably-sized city and town must have its own expensive collection of universities and institutions of higher education. Universities receive permanent subsidies in every state. In addition, universities are often protected in economic slowdowns.

Changing this situation is only possible with a new champion of higher education with the resources and clout to remake higher education. You would need a Walmart of higher education to develop a new delivery model. Much of higher education costs can be substantially lowered without sacrificing quality through standardized evaluation, unbundling of services, and commoditizing the product. No one in higher education wants to listen to this message. State legislators do not want to hear this message. Even consumers of higher education do not want to hear this message because it is so different than the current situation. Without lots of startup capital, no entrepreneur could hope to fund such a bold venture.

I fully agree with your assessment of higher education. It is stuck in the past and shows no signs of moving beyond that, even if it had support from outside the university community. You may be right about university tuition causation/correlation. That seemed to be the theory back in the eighties when I worked as Assistant General Counsel to a private university.

I think one reason universities don’t want to move beyond the traditional face-to-face lectures and on-campus experience is partly because they really do want to foster diversity but I believe it also is because a significant part of university courses are not really germane to student plans for the future and would never survive “on their own”. I’m talking about courses like women’s studies, black studies, music appreciation, and many others students take just to fill out the credit requirements. (My own undergraduate degree was in communications, emphasis on journalism. We were encouraged to take a lot of “fluff” courses to give ourselves a Platte River breadth of education so we might write halfway intelligently about a myriad of topics.)

I think the larger problem, though, is a lot of universities have lost sight of their major goal of preparing students for lifelong education. Instead too many courses seem aimed at satisfying one or another political or social agenda. Disparate voices are shut out. “Politically deviant” professors remain at the adjunct level. Nobel stars call the shots. At least it was that way many years ago.

I wish you luck in your career. Twenty-five years is a long time to put up with kids at that level. I would be interested in what you see are the major differences in students between when you began and now (when you get a moment to respond).

That is a common complaint. My husband graduated in electrical engineering back in the late eighties. We have just one in college right now and costs are going up but not nearly as high as the ivy league schools. We are paying her tuition and board. She’s disappointed she doesn’t have her own car at school but we tell her she is lucky she doesn’t have to work and won’t have debts to pay off after she graduates. Last winter she phoned home to say she was running around with a roommate helping that girl jump through the student loan hurdles. She called to say “thanks”.

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