The Fall of the Ivory Tower

[Alpha]

In the pandemic era, many students have shifted away from the philosophy "What's the best school I can get into?" and toward a philosophy of "What is the safest, easiest way to get my degree?"  Many schools are struggling and some will not survive.
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/...story.html

[nomaduser]

online degree is the best.

[Seagull]

In the pandemic era, many students have shifted away from the philosophy "What's the best school I can get into?" and toward a philosophy of "What is the safest, easiest way to get my degree?"  Many schools are struggling and some will not survive.
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/...story.html

It was about time, maybe the schools will focus on more substance and better prices. 

Colleges in the US are TOO expensive and it is unreasonable, especially for the quality of content they offer. Maybe this pandemic will establish a balance between quality and cost and will be more in favor of the students than the colleges.

[nomaduser]

In the pandemic era, many students have shifted away from the philosophy "What's the best school I can get into?" and toward a philosophy of "What is the safest, easiest way to get my degree?"  Many schools are struggling and some will not survive.
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/...story.html

It was about time, maybe the schools will focus on more substance and better prices. 

Colleges in the US are TOO expensive and it is unreasonable, especially for the quality of content they offer. Maybe this pandemic will establish a balance between quality and cost and will be more in favor of the students than the colleges.

Agreed.

i.e. Drexel University's out-of-state tuition fee is $70,000 USD per year.
That's price of UPenn's tuition!
How is that normal??? The private university administrators are too greedy. They're financially abusing students.
Students should do protest against university admins in US.....

[ss20ts]

In the pandemic era, many students have shifted away from the philosophy "What's the best school I can get into?" and toward a philosophy of "What is the safest, easiest way to get my degree?"  Many schools are struggling and some will not survive.
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/...story.html

I believe it was slowly - very slowly - already starting to happen. Many colleges have been struggling financially for several years. This just pushed them over the edge and they finally had to get real. The college down the road from me was bragging that they froze tuition this year. As if they had a choice! Several of the colleges in my area did them same thing. Their enrollment has decreased significantly. Turns out the bulk of their income comes from dorms and meal plans. Not really a big surprise since you can get an apartment off campus for thousands less typically. 

I believe we will see far more online programs. High school students today may only want an online degree in 2-3 years. Remote learning/online learning is what many have done for the last 2 school years. Setting foot on a college campus would be something many no longer want. Affordability is a massive problem. We may see more programs like WGU which I think would be wonderful. I wish programs like this existed decades ago when I first went off to college. I do believe the entire higher education system is in for a massive overhaul. It needs to become affordable and attainable for everyone. 

[dfrecore]

Students should do protest against university admins in US.....

They can - they opt not to go to that school, and eventually the school may go under.  Or only draw a certain crowd and get a bad reputation.  Or whatever.  But you don't need to mount an official protest, you just don't go and you've made your point.

[LongRoad]

One of my pet peeves is the cost of text books, especially for Gen. Ed. courses. When I started at a B&M decades ago, your only option was to buy from the school bookstore, or luck out and buy from someone who'd taken the course. Next came the Internet. Yay! With just the ISBN, you could buy a textbook from anywhere!

Now, colleges have businesses create digital books for them, and they cannot be used for other schools. And don't buy a used one 'cause it may not have the "vital" lab access. Or a new edition comes out every few years. All of this is NOT for cutting edge classes, I'm talking about courses like Microeconomics. It seems like many of the PowerPoint presentation, quizzes, etc. are devised by these companies. What ARE the professor's doing/creating to add value to the course?

Why aren't more colleges using sites like OpenStax?

[jch]

One of my pet peeves is the cost of text books, especially for Gen. Ed. courses. When I started at a B&M decades ago, your only option was to buy from the school bookstore, or luck out and buy from someone who'd taken the course. Next came the Internet. Yay! With just the ISBN, you could buy a textbook from anywhere!

Now, colleges have businesses create digital books for them, and they cannot be used for other schools. And don't buy a used one 'cause it may not have the "vital" lab access. Or a new edition comes out every few years. All of this is NOT for cutting edge classes, I'm talking about courses like Microeconomics. It seems like many of the PowerPoint presentation, quizzes, etc. are devised by these companies. What ARE the professor's doing/creating to add value to the course?

Why aren't more colleges using sites like OpenStax?

This textbook stuff is one of the reasons why I love ASU EA. There's no textbook or access code hurdles to deal with at all. Everything is included in the course registration and fee. They use open educational resources (OERs), including openstax, whenever they need a text. Their way of doing things definitely seems like the future. I love what they're doing with high school partnerships, and I wish I could have participated in something like that. Thanks to Covid, ASU EA has experienced huge growth. I think ASU is really on to something.

Meanwhile, my "free" term at Strayer still required me to pay several hundred dollars per class for ebook and online lab access codes. Nearly all of the assignments are activities within those tools. The professor just posts some pre-recorded videos and pre-typed announcements, and then grades discussion posts. In my opinion, the ASU EA courses are much better than Strayer online, despite the sticker cost of Strayer being several times higher. There is no way that I could justify the normal cost of Strayer. The value delivered by their product is minimal.

[rachel83az]

I have to say that I agree with the assessment of Strayer. I do really like the iCampus/Blackboard integration, though. And these aren't exactly UL classes. But of the things that I didn't already know, I'm not sure how much I'm learning with Strayer. CIS-111 especially feels like it is 2 completely different courses that have been smushed together. The first is where the instructor is actually trying to teach people about the history of databases and why they are what they are and the other is a basic MS Access course. They don't feel like they have anything to do with one another.

[tallpilot]

Students should do protest against university admins in US.....

They can - they opt not to go to that school, and eventually the school may go under.  Or only draw a certain crowd and get a bad reputation.  Or whatever.  But you don't need to mount an official protest, you just don't go and you've made your point.

This is the reality. As long as people are willing to take out astronomically large loans and pay ridiculously inflated tuition, nothing will change. When a critical mass finally says, ‘enough’ and refuses to play the game then colleges will adapt. Hopefully the programs elucidated here will help people see alternative paths.

Curiously the author ignores the special status of student loans in bankruptcy in his theory of high costs.  He also intimates that college students are making choices based on perceived safety as opposed to economics. I’m not sure I can agree with that.