a) "Colleges are full of it: Behind the three-decade scheme to raise tuition, bankrupt generations, and hypnotize the media", June 8th 2014, http://www.salon.com/2014/06/08/colleges_are_full_of_it_behind_the_three_decade_scheme_to_raise_tuition_bankrupt_generations_and_hypnotize_the_media/
The article refers to USA higher education. Some notes on it:
* 1200+ percent increase in price of college tuition over last three decades, rising twice as fast as medical care costs
* Over the decades, universities (administrators) have given the reasons for steep rise in tuition fees as utility bills, libraries, professor salaries (top professors costing top money), students demanding luxuries (carpeting, furniture, gymnasiums ...) etc.
* Actually teaching duties in universities were/(are?) handled by graduate students and adjunct professors! [Ravi: This clearly has some exaggeration. For effect perhaps. The reality may be that a significant part of the "teaching load" is handled by adjuncts and grad-students freeing up professors for research.]
* In 1986, a spokesman of a higher-ed accreditation group told the New York Times, “A grant conveys the message, ‘We value you and will invest in your future,’ ” ... “The message of a loan is, ‘Go forward if you want, but on your own nickel.’ Loans reinforce privatist, instrumental values, a sense that you’re in college for yourself and that college studies have as an end only what comes later—a job and paying off the loan.” [Ravi: Now, it seems to be almost all loans and preciously few grants for students in US higher-ed.]
* The tuition fee big upward spiral started in 1981 with deregulation and free market principles sweeping higher education field.
* Purpose of college education has become a pathway to a high paying job (one million dollars more, supposedly, over working lifetime with a college degree) and not serving the nation (being of benefit to the nation).
---- end notes ---
Ravi: India seems to be going down the same road in the case of private professional (higher) education! Can India learn from the mistakes of USA higher education and chart a different path?
b) College costs expose the false meritocracy of the American dream, June 18th 2014 http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/jun/18/college-cost-false-meritocracy-jobs-wealth-education
Notes: PhD qualified Wall Street Banker who graduated from a Florida public college in 1987 paying $2,500 a year, discusses how steep rises in college cost are making it an exclusive path for the generation of his children, limited to the rich and those willing to get into big debt. And the top white collar jobs, including Wall Street jobs, have become the exclusive domain of Ivy league or similar schools.
The article refers to USA higher education. Some notes on it:
* 1200+ percent increase in price of college tuition over last three decades, rising twice as fast as medical care costs
* Over the decades, universities (administrators) have given the reasons for steep rise in tuition fees as utility bills, libraries, professor salaries (top professors costing top money), students demanding luxuries (carpeting, furniture, gymnasiums ...) etc.
* Actually teaching duties in universities were/(are?) handled by graduate students and adjunct professors! [Ravi: This clearly has some exaggeration. For effect perhaps. The reality may be that a significant part of the "teaching load" is handled by adjuncts and grad-students freeing up professors for research.]
* In 1986, a spokesman of a higher-ed accreditation group told the New York Times, “A grant conveys the message, ‘We value you and will invest in your future,’ ” ... “The message of a loan is, ‘Go forward if you want, but on your own nickel.’ Loans reinforce privatist, instrumental values, a sense that you’re in college for yourself and that college studies have as an end only what comes later—a job and paying off the loan.” [Ravi: Now, it seems to be almost all loans and preciously few grants for students in US higher-ed.]
* The tuition fee big upward spiral started in 1981 with deregulation and free market principles sweeping higher education field.
* Purpose of college education has become a pathway to a high paying job (one million dollars more, supposedly, over working lifetime with a college degree) and not serving the nation (being of benefit to the nation).
---- end notes ---
Ravi: India seems to be going down the same road in the case of private professional (higher) education! Can India learn from the mistakes of USA higher education and chart a different path?
b) College costs expose the false meritocracy of the American dream, June 18th 2014 http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/jun/18/college-cost-false-meritocracy-jobs-wealth-education
Notes: PhD qualified Wall Street Banker who graduated from a Florida public college in 1987 paying $2,500 a year, discusses how steep rises in college cost are making it an exclusive path for the generation of his children, limited to the rich and those willing to get into big debt. And the top white collar jobs, including Wall Street jobs, have become the exclusive domain of Ivy league or similar schools.
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