In a column “College grads, debt slaves”, Associate Editor Gil Smart observes:
“…According to the College Board, for the 2012-13 academic year, the average list price for a four-year state school (assuming you live in state) is $8,655. At a private nonprofit college, it’s a staggering $29,056.
“This is, the College Board is quick to assert, the sticker price. It doesn’t take financial aid and tax deductions into account. But it also doesn’t include room and board; add that in and you’re talking $17,860 annually at a state school, $39,518 at a private, four-year college…
“But we’re rapidly getting to a point in this society where the ambitions people have for their kids are becoming economic casualties. That’s a desperate and angry society, when your only choices are decades, perhaps a lifetime of debt peonage — or to give up your dreams entirely…”
Our current university system originated in the Middle Ages when it was necessary to travel across Europe to one of the few colleges or universities. Over the centuries, a necessity of living on or near campus became interpreted as benefit for ‘breaking away’ from parental and provincial influences and providing a exposure to a diversity of students and faculty.
But we now live in the age of expensive educational institutes and also the Internet, and the time has come to combine the benefits of both.
As we have noted in the past, a good model is the Executive Program at Harvard Business School. Students spend an initial four weeks on campus and then return for a week in subsequent years. They attend lectures via the Internet at a time of their convenience and work as part of small study groups, also via the Internet. The program is stretched out over several years so it does not unduly interfere with their management responsibilities.
The University of Phoenix was founded by a John Sperling in 1976, until then a professor at San Jose State University. At the time, his proposals for alternative approaches to education were rejected by the California University System. Phoenix later became a pioneer in Internet education and a proto-type for what many universities, including Penn State, are now offering.
We can envision the following economical and effective model for a good university undergraduate education. A student would spend a freshman year semester at a college or university campus, then return twice annually for two week sessions. He or she would take classes at home and as part of an Internet study group. The facilities of a local college or university would be used for lab classes.
Colleges and universities would serve three times as many home based students with minimal increase in total costs to the institution. In 2013 real terms, tuition of $10,000 a year should suffice. Students should be able to earn that much from part time jobs.
Thus neither Smart nor his children would become “debt slaves.” And everyone who sought and was qualified could receive a good college education.
By combining public pre-school education and university degrees via the Internet, we will have gone far towards ‘leveling the playing field.’ We are supposed to be a democracy, aren’t we?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Sperling
Here Here! What? Twice in recent memory I find myself siding with Gil Smart?
I have long advocated that education is too expensive and not just at the college level. Let me add that Colleges and Universities should not be the exclusive providers of higher education. Look at what the Khan Academy has done for practically nothing; it’s free!
Coupled with an independent testing & licensing system the barriers to the acquisition and application of knowledge would fall. The education industry has had a lock on education for far too long. It’s time to advance.