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Well, for me, it always boils down to value. People misunderstand this as assigning value based on salaries or employability, but I mean value in the larger sense. You have to have a reason to ask students to pay more than the marginal costs of delivering education. And with all these revolutions in technology for course delivery, that marginal cost is going to zero very, very quickly [think journalism]. So, every institution that’s going to survive, I think, over the next 50 years, is going to have to make that case. Why is it that tuition at this institution is justified?
The interesting thing about this is it’s going to be accelerated because the old bureaucracies, the old institutional models… are crumbling. At least, their boundaries are crumbling. Let me tell you what I mean by that.
The accrediting agencies, which I think traditionally have had — at least for the last 120 years or so—an institutional focus, are now shifting their focus to students; to competencies, to demonstrations of what students know. And that really starts to cut against institutional entitlement.
I think the conclusion of all this is that, as it becomes harder and harder for… a “Me-Too Institution” to argue for a marginal increase in price, the amount of money that those institutions are going to have available to them to spend on anything but core mission for students is also going to go to zero. So, this is kind of a virtuous cycle; … institutions that are unable to make the value proposition will find themselves more and more strapped for discretionary funds in order to move themselves into a different space. And that’s an ending that’s not very good for most institutions.
From DSC:
How will our/your organization keep from becoming a commodity? What are we/you all going to bring to the table that’s different, unique, and worth paying for?
Also see:
- Higher Education’s turn in the vortex of change — from evoLLLution.com by Karen Sibley | Dean of Continuing Education, Brown University
Excerpt:
Here’s the mind-bending question that prompts this thought:
What will brand value and marketing in higher education look like in 2023?
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MOOCS likely to be integrated into traditional university programming — from evoLLLution.com by Larry Cooperman | Director of OpenCourseWare, UC Irvine
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Traditional instructors will remain, but online learning heralds a new breed — from evoLLLution.com by Pepper Lynn Werner | Doctoral Student, University of Wyoming