Flarben

College Tuition: Explaining the Increases

Thanks for an exquisitely detailed article that entirely misses the point: Colleges and universities are little more than huge, inefficient bureaucracies feeding at the familiar public trough of easy money from tax revenue and government-subsidized loans and grants. Many of these loans will never be repaid and everyone knows it.

A recent audit of UNC/Chapel Hill found that the school was wasting vast sums on a bloated administrative structure unlike anything seen in the private sector. Google or Bing "UNC audit" to read about this outrage for yourself.

Moreover, it's worth asking: What exactly are we getting from all of the time, energy and money spent on the majority of university degrees? A degree is no longer a bona fide occupational qualification for most jobs, but just a marker that one has spent tens of thousands of dollars and at least four years pursuing the stupid piece of paper. Outside of select fields such as physics, civil engineering or medicine, what exactly is the point of a university degree, anyway? Give any smart, top-performing high-school kid an apprenticeship in most career fields and my guess is that he or she would be a standout performer after six years -- which is the minimimum time an MBA graduate would have spent in school just to GET STARTED in a career.

College is an overpriced edu-vacation. There is a difference between becoming educated and satisfying the requirements of a typical college degree program, yet somehow the notion of attending college is so sacrosanct that any effort to decouple the two concepts is met with horror. Why not just allow the best and brightest to take a series of exams and skip the entire exercise? I know why: Because so many would pass that it would render the entire establishment unnecessary. And many fields, such as "Women's Studies" would dry up and float away for good.

While I'm on this rant, has anyone ever asked why each state even needs numerous separate institutions, all granting similar degrees and all loaded down with dupicative administrators, registrars, deans and college vice-presidents for academic affairs? And why aren't credits earned at any accredited institution instantly transferable, allowing students to finish degrees wherever they live? Instead, someone relocating to another state can't even attend college without paying "out of state" tuition even though the individual establishes residency, and then in the case of graduate programs, only a few credits earned previously will transfer.

I think we know the answer to these questions. Colleges and universities exist not to serve students but to grab as many societal resources as possible in the name of education and career preparation.

It's been said that if a trend is unstainable, then it won't be sustained. My guess is that the modern university will finally be forced to change when government largesse is cut off and/or when parents and students simply refuse to register for classes. In other words, it's time for taxpayers and tuition payers to demand that these leaches get real jobs. Let's treat degrees more like industry certifications and allow those who want to commit their lives to studying literature or other noble puruits due so on their own dime.