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Please note that this opinion is limited to public institutions.
A large portion of major state-sponsored universities in the USA have raised tuition through the recent recession despite a decrease in overall inflation rates. Often the tuition increases are snuck over the maximum allowable by state law (for the university to continue to recieve state funding) by tacking on massive "differential fees" to yield a total increase of 5-10% in moderate cases and 20% or more in extreme cases.
Usually, these fee increases are justified by citing a shortfall in state funds, increases in general operating costs, and lots of hand waving and smoke-blowing about the "return on investment" in a college education.
While there are, indeed, shortfalls in state funding, donations, and increases in operating costs such as utilities and health care, the tuition increases usually FAR outstrip the pace of increased costs.
The REAL reason universities are raising tuitions is because they can. With high unemployment, workers are attempting to go back to school to retrain or update their knowledge to improve their skills when they return to the workplace. The increased demand puts universities in the enviable position of being able to charge whatever they please and still fill their rosters.
However, raising tuition in a recession is dishonest and sews the seeds of a dishonest workforce of tomorrow. While individual responsibility plays the key role in whether a student, researcher, or employee displays the traits of honesty (willing to be a whistle-blower, unwilling to cook financial books, unwilling to "adjust" the data to give positive results), a primary driver of dishonest behaviour is a lack of investment in society. A recent graduate under a $50,000 load of debt has literally "nothing to loose" and therefore will be much more likely to look the other way when his or her boss or coworkers do something unethical for money.
Accepting state funds is an implicit social contract for state-sponsored schools. They should strive to improve the society which supports them, and that means NOT screwing their students for every penny they can squeeze out of them. Such dishonest and immoral behaviour in the name of "business" will only come back to haunt us all when todays graduating class becomes the enablers of future Enrons, banking collapses, or other financial scandals.
The educational sector is not immune to the recession, because their base support--student's who cannot raise enough money to pay their artificially-inflated tuition--and acting like they are is dishonest and immoral. On one hand, many universities are now requiring massivly wasteful courses in honset business and research practices while acting dishonestly toward their own student population. Such behaviour should not be tolerated. If you are enrolled in such a university, pay attention to the reasons given for fee increases, demand explanations and transparency from your University's leadership, and if that is not forthcoming, write your elected officals and news outlets and try to force your university to act as an honest and upstanding social institution.
Please note that this opinion is limited to public institutions.
A large portion of major state-sponsored universities in the USA have raised tuition through the recent recession despite a decrease in overall inflation rates. Often the tuition increases are snuck over the maximum allowable by state law (for the university to continue to recieve state funding) by tacking on massive "differential fees" to yield a total increase of 5-10% in moderate cases and 20% or more in extreme cases.
Usually, these fee increases are justified by citing a shortfall in state funds, increases in general operating costs, and lots of hand waving and smoke-blowing about the "return on investment" in a college education.
While there are, indeed, shortfalls in state funding, donations, and increases in operating costs such as utilities and health care, the tuition increases usually FAR outstrip the pace of increased costs.
The REAL reason universities are raising tuitions is because they can. With high unemployment, workers are attempting to go back to school to retrain or update their knowledge to improve their skills when they return to the workplace. The increased demand puts universities in the enviable position of being able to charge whatever they please and still fill their rosters.
However, raising tuition in a recession is dishonest and sews the seeds of a dishonest workforce of tomorrow. While individual responsibility plays the key role in whether a student, researcher, or employee displays the traits of honesty (willing to be a whistle-blower, unwilling to cook financial books, unwilling to "adjust" the data to give positive results), a primary driver of dishonest behaviour is a lack of investment in society. A recent graduate under a $50,000 load of debt has literally "nothing to loose" and therefore will be much more likely to look the other way when his or her boss or coworkers do something unethical for money.
Accepting state funds is an implicit social contract for state-sponsored schools. They should strive to improve the society which supports them, and that means NOT screwing their students for every penny they can squeeze out of them. Such dishonest and immoral behaviour in the name of "business" will only come back to haunt us all when todays graduating class becomes the enablers of future Enrons, banking collapses, or other financial scandals.
The educational sector is not immune to the recession, because their base support--student's who cannot raise enough money to pay their artificially-inflated tuition--and acting like they are is dishonest and immoral. On one hand, many universities are now requiring massivly wasteful courses in honset business and research practices while acting dishonestly toward their own student population. Such behaviour should not be tolerated. If you are enrolled in such a university, pay attention to the reasons given for fee increases, demand explanations and transparency from your University's leadership, and if that is not forthcoming, write your elected officals and news outlets and try to force your university to act as an honest and upstanding social institution.
Your anger is justified but for the wrong reasons. The true cost of a public university educated is more double what you are paying. Prices are too low and quality even lower. The problem is that Americans have not fully debated the content of curriculum, which I submit to you is extremely watered-down and getting worse. Such low standards mean that worse students enter and leanr anything. Such students then resist any effort to make the curriculum rigorous.
Push for traditional grade standards; push harder and more meaningful classes; push regulatory dormitory living instead of dorm floors with concierge service! But alas, students won't, as they love the teen life too much.
You make interesting points, but I must disagree based on personal experience.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sandpointian
The true cost of a public university educated is more double what you are paying. Prices are too low and quality even lower. The problem is that Americans have not fully debated the content of curriculum, which I submit to you is extremely watered-down and getting worse. Such low standards mean that worse students enter and leanr anything. Such students then resist any effort to make the curriculum rigorous.
I will agree that some university courses and even degrees are meritless, however there are disciplines which are both worthwhile and educational. Engineering is an excellent example. While foreign schools strive to provide top-rate engineering courses, foreign students still flock to the United State's technical Universities because they are the best in the world. These schools are also some of the most expensive in the world, with rates far higher than other industrialized countries. So I cannot agree that--on the whole--University educations are too cheap and the quality of education too low.
Quote:
Push for traditional grade standards; push harder and more meaningful classes; push regulatory dormitory living instead of dorm floors with concierge service! But alas, students won't, as they love the teen life too much.
S.
I don't really see how traditional grading standards will create more ethical and honest students or address the problem I cited. Dormatory funding is usually separate from Universities' scholastic funding. It is usually the most expensive option compared to sharing an apartment (or even rooms in an apartment) with other students. I don't really see a problem with those expenses as they are based on comfort levels students are willing to pay for. I am more concerned with base-load minimum costs for education; tuition and differential fees.
There are plenty of tricks to save money in college; "Borrow" expensive calculators from big-box stores and return them at the 3-month mark or whenever the electronics return policy allows, check out from the library or photocopy relevant sections of required text books and return them, live 2-3 people per room in a cheap apartment, buy bicycles and essential furniture from university or police salvage, etc. These are perephrial costs which can be mitigated, negotiated, or you can go without to avoid them. University tuitions do not fall into this category.
The President of UT Austin came from Enron. Scary, right!! Your point is very obvious to the point of it being ironic and satirical.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sponger42
Such dishonest and immoral behaviour in the name of "business" will only come back to haunt us all when todays graduating class becomes the enablers of future Enrons,banking collapses, or other financial scandals.
Taxpayers and politicians are highly resistant to raising taxes during a recession, even if the monies go toward education. Yet, students in their 20s still seem willing to take on education debt. Why pester the public for more money when students and their families just fill in the budgetary gaps?
The point is that many universities are effectively raising tuitions by 10-20% when they are only facing 5% budgetary shortfalls. A specific example I know of is a midwestern university which raised it's tuition and fees 18%, got a 1% increase in funding from the state, and was only faced with a 4% increase in costs.
Ethics would seem to dictate that the university should only have raised it's tuition by a maximum of 3% to cover increased costs. Or perhaps suspended or shrink this year's raises or hiring. Yet they, instead, stuck students with increasing their profits by 15% in the middle of a recession. That is highly unethical behaviour and sends a message to their students that it is okay to *********r customers and society as much as you can, ethics and morals be darned.
Oh, and this same university implemented a new requirement that all students take a 8-hour online ethics course at the same time as they were raising tuitions without justification.
Starts with dumb, irresponsible parents who have kids they can't afford
Then, dumb and irresponsible kids and parents often don't plan and prepare for how to enter top colleges and choose specific majors (and achieve high grades) to increase odds of a decent starting job upon graduating in 2-3 yrs (takes a wasteful moron to need 4 yrs to earn any undergrad degree)
IIRC, Harvard's undergrad class of '09 had a ~40% rate of lacking any job offer at graduation....a stunning testimonial to lack of relevance of a lib arts degree, even from a prestigious college, in a challenging economy in which leading employers expect job-relevant quant skills that nearly all lib arts majors (incl economics) fail to provide, despite 4 yrs and ~$250K wasted
The point is that many universities are effectively raising tuitions by 10-20% when they are only facing 5% budgetary shortfalls. A specific example I know of is a midwestern university which raised it's tuition and fees 18%, got a 1% increase in funding from the state, and was only faced with a 4% increase in costs.
The national average for tuition increase at public universities for 2009-2010 is around 6.5%. Private colleges are at an average of 4.3%. Since this is an average, some are less and some are more, but you can't lump them all together as 'unethical' without looking at each one individually. While enrollment is up at some public universities, it is also down at others. Tuition rises every year, but you need to examine individual colleges for the reasons why they are increasing beyond (or below) the national average.
Which midwestern state is this college in?
Quote:
Originally Posted by sponger42
Ethics would seem to dictate that the university should only have raised it's tuition by a maximum of 3% to cover increased costs. Or perhaps suspended or shrink this year's raises or hiring. Yet they, instead, stuck students with increasing their profits by 15% in the middle of a recession. That is highly unethical behaviour and sends a message to their students that it is okay to *********r customers and society as much as you can, ethics and morals be darned.
How is this highly unethical? Are you suggesting that students at public universities are too dumb to understand the difference between ethical and unethical behavior?
Besides, something can only be unethical if it goes against an individuals personal belief system.
The point is that many universities are effectively raising tuitions by 10-20% when they are only facing 5% budgetary shortfalls. A specific example I know of is a midwestern university which raised it's tuition and fees 18%, got a 1% increase in funding from the state, and was only faced with a 4% increase in costs.
You forgot to account for the add/loss of external grant monies, which can be a pretty substantial percentage of some school's budget, the desire to keep some programs/personnel who had been grant-funded even after a grant has ended or been reduced, how the difficulties in financial markets have affected endowment income, which is another big chunk of many university budgets, how a 1% increase in state funding can be a per capita funding loss for the school if enrollment has increased at a faster rate than state funding increases....
Starts with dumb, irresponsible parents who have kids they can't afford
Then, dumb and irresponsible kids and parents often don't plan and prepare for how to enter top colleges and choose specific majors (and achieve high grades) to increase odds of a decent starting job upon graduating in 2-3 yrs (takes a wasteful moron to need 4 yrs to earn any undergrad degree)
IIRC, Harvard's undergrad class of '09 had a ~40% rate of lacking any job offer at graduation....a stunning testimonial to lack of relevance of a lib arts degree, even from a prestigious college, in a challenging economy in which leading employers expect job-relevant quant skills that nearly all lib arts majors (incl economics) fail to provide, despite 4 yrs and ~$250K wasted
Please elaborate on why you think this. I can see why 6 years would be excessive, but 4 is the norm. If it shouldn't take people 4 years to get a Bachelor's Degree, then why is college set up so that you have a Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, and Senior year?
How long did it take you to get your Bachelor's Degree? Do you even have a degree?
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