The future of higher education in America looks bleak.
I got my BA from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville in 1977. At the time, the university charged no tuition, but “fees” were about $165/quarter for a full load. Of course, as a state university, it was heavily subsidized by state tax dollars. Quite a feat for a state that has no income tax.
The business model for higher education has been changing for a while. Small private colleges are closing or merging because of declining enrollment. State universities are raising in-state tuition as well as out-of-state tuition to compensate for legislature cuts to education, putting a college degree out of reach of many working class learners.
For now, higher education in America is a magnet for foreign students, who are willing to pay full tuition. But as university administrators continue to cut programs and faculty, that won’t be sustainable. Mr. Kamau Bobb of Google‘s journey from Brooklyn to becoming a prominent figure in education is inspiring.
“The future of higher education looks bleak. Money will flow to elites in private schools, who will benefit from comprehensive language instruction, liberal arts, inclusive critical thinking skills, and a global curriculum, and thus have access to global careers in the arts, finance, diplomacy, national security, international business, international law, AI, and other fields. Students at state schools will receive the education that the oligarchs want them to, based on their largesse.”
The future of higher ed
I agree with you. For my BA the costs were about $1200 a semester plus books. State Grant paid for much and my GI Bill picked up the rest. It has only worsened as state aid decreased and tuition goes up to compensate plus inflation. I am glad I finished up my MA early in the eighties as the cost a decade or so would have been too great.
A guy from our church worked 15 years in Wisconsin state audits (spending and processes, not taxpayer audit). That graph describes Wisconsin pretty well. His explanation to a parishioner with a child just heading off to UW (Oshkosh, I think) was the state shifted a lot of spending to healthcare (Medicaid mostly) and K-12 education support. A lot of it was due to the state evidently having higher legal obligations to spend on health and K-12 than on higher ed.
Eric:
Wisconsin under Walker did not expand Medicaid.
Not taking federal dollars to expand Medicaid in Wisconsin puts health of thousands at risk
The cost of a year in residence at my alma mater is over 10 times what it was in ’63 when I was a freshman. I had a full scholarship, so only the housing costs were on us and that was hard enough. In graduate school I had a fellowship that paid a housing stipend. $180/month, and I paid rent and food and gas out of that, and had steak more often than I did once I started working. That would not even pay for the heating bill this winter now.
After I got out of school, any degree was a desirable degree. I was a preferred job candidate. My degree had nothing to do at all with the job I was doing, but that did not matter, I got paid good money for someone just starting out as a trainee. Within 3 years I was financially independent, my loans paid off, and was buying my own home. That doesn’t happen to very many college graduates now.
Higher education costs more, relatively and absolutely, and the benefits are generally smaller while the loan costs are higher. Not a good set of trends.
@Jane,
Hmm.
“In terms of what the vast majority of families actually pay, college costs no more today than it did in 1992.”
https://jabberwocking.com/the-cost-of-college-has-barely-changed-in-the-past-30-years/
Maybe relative to 1992. Not to 1963.
I prominently ‘footlined’ this in today’s roundup, I think you’ll like the placement
I went to college and university much later than y’all, well into my thirties and well into the nineties. It will never get paid off (not for lack of trying) …
it’s working as intended; the point of higher education in the 69s and 70s was to produce an educated workforce for the oligarchs; the point of higher education over the recent years has been to produce a workforce of debt slaves for the oligarchs…
the future looks bleak because AI means that educating the vast majority will no longer be necessary. in fact, the vast majority themselves will no longer be necessary..
What cost $1 in 1963 would cost $9.83 in 2022.
Three gallons of Gasoline was about $1.00. The prices varies today. It is around $9.63 for three gallons.
off topic, Bill, but when i started
drivingpaying for my own gas, which would have been circa 66, it could be had for 17 or 19 cents a gallon on corners where stations were competing…it went up to 30 – 33 cents a gallon shortly thereafter, but i was still buying “a buck’s worth of regular” every time i pulled in..rjs:
It never got lower than 25 cents a gallon for me. The 33 cents per gallon fits the scenario Lawrence talks about. This was in Chicago. Surprisingly $3.20 per gallon is really great right now.
Also and at the time I used the number, I did a quick look to see how realistic it was. The other surprising thing is “they pumped the gasoline.”
Vaguely related…
The Moral Decline of Elite Universities
The Atlantic – Dec 14, 2023
(Ok, so it’s the ‘moral decline’ – of the staffs & faculties. As well as their dwindling morale? Buck up ivory-tower people, yer pay is probably pretty decent. Less navel-gazing may be called for. How is it among the freaking students, I gotta wonder. Hopefully, as my uneducated father used to remind me, they are having the ‘time of their lives’. I certainly was not.)