cost of getting an education

In our litigious society, higher ed needs to tread carefully…

On 01/20/2011, in change, changing business models, cost of getting a degree, education reform, innovation, legislatures / government / legal, online learning, online media, student-related, by Daniel Christian

CSU students’ tuition suit now a class action — from SF Gate by Nanette Asimov, Chronicle Staff Writer

A longshot legal complaint by five students who accused California State University trustees of illegally raising tuition in 2009 is now an official class-action lawsuit on behalf of 200,000 students demanding their money back. At stake is $40 million in refunds for students at a time when CSU is facing at least a $500 million cut in state funding that could bring on layoffs, course reductions and even higher tuition. The lawsuit claims CSU illegally raised tuition for fall 2009 because students had already paid that semester’s bill.

From DSC:

I certainly hope that this is a longshot legal complaint — both now and forevermore. However, in our litigious society, I’m not so sure.

When someone is now paying the price of a house for an education, expectations greatly increase. When the employment situation is tough, will students come back to sue? Don’t get me wrong, I am not in support of this at all — and I think it would be misplaced anger. However, I can see it happening more and more unless the price can be brought back down. It’s like steam in a tea kettle, turn down the temp (i.e. price), and there is less steam (i.e. anger). But it’s not just that — reducing the price of education via innovative means will hopefully be a win-win situation for all involved.

Recent/related items:

The (Un)employment Chronicles: Voices of the Degreed and Jobless — from The Huffington Post
Share Your Story — Majoring In Debt — from The Huffington Post
Unemployed Woman Sues College For Tuition — from The Huffington Post

Tagged with: change • cost of getting an education • education reform • higher education • legislation • new business models in he • online learning • online media • student expectations • student-related • Walmart of Education

The need for innovation: Items re: how the price of higher ed is affecting students, families, communities, nations

On 01/11/2011, in budgets, business side of he, cost of getting a degree, funding / grants, future, future of higher education, legislatures / government / legal, new business models, staying relevant, student-related, United States, by Daniel Christian

One from DSC:

Abstract:
A perfect storm has been building within higher education. Numerous, powerful forces have been converging that either already are or soon will be impacting the way higher education is offered and experienced. This paper focuses on one of those forces – the increasing price tag of obtaining a degree within higher education. It will seek to show that what goes up…must come down. Some less expensive alternatives are already here today; but the most significant changes and market “corrections” appear to be right around the corner. That is, higher education is a bubble about to burst.

One from CNBC:

— from CNBC on Monday, January 3, 2011

Also see:

CNBC’s “Price of Admission: America’s College Debt Crisis”
The Institute’s president Lauren Asher appears in CNBC‘s original documentary “Price of Admission: America’s College Debt Crisis,” weighing in on the rising cost of college and student debt in the United States.

From DSC:
Disclosure: I work for Calvin College. However, I publish the above items in the hopes that those of us at Calvin and within higher education as a whole will choose to innovate — that we will think outside the box in order to greatly lower the cost of providing a degree within higher education. It would be very helpful to future students, families, communities, nations.

No matter how you look at it, pain — but also opportunities — are ahead. Change will not be easy, nor will it be comfortable. It will most likely be very scary and very tough. At least for me, this posting and the topic it discusses evokes major soul and heart searching for me. Nevertheless, the questions remain:

What changes do we need to make so that institutions of higher education can become more affordable? Stay relevant? Be sustainable over time?
What should we put in place of the current “status quo”?
Who receives the pain? Who enjoys the opportunities?

Also see:

EUROPE: Spending cuts hit university budgets — from UniversityWorldNews.com by Alan Osborn
09 January 2011
Issue: 153

Addendum on 1-19-11:

http://www.defaultmovie.com/

Addendum on 1/22/10:
The Bubble: Higher Education’s Precarious Hold on Consumer Confidence — from National Association of Scholars

Tagged with: budgetary • business side of he • cost of getting an education • for-profits • funding • future • future of higher education • grants • higher education • legislation • new business models in he • staying relevant • student-related • United States • Walmart of Education

What goes up…must come down. A paper re: the costs of obtaining a degree in higher education, by Daniel S. Christian

On 12/22/2010, in accreditation, budgets, business side of he, changing business models, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, future of higher education, game-changing environment, leadership, new business models, strategy, traditional / tradition, United States, by Daniel Christian

Abstract
A perfect storm has been building within higher education. Numerous, powerful forces have been converging that either already are or soon will be impacting the way higher education is offered and experienced. This paper focuses on one of those forces – the increasing price tag of obtaining a degree within higher education. It will seek to show that what goes up…must come down. Some less expensive alternatives are already here today; but the most significant changes and market “corrections” appear to be right around the corner. That is, higher education is a bubble about to burst.

Tagged with: accreditation • adding value/not a commodity • budgetary • business side of he • change • cost of getting an education • dangers of the status quo • Daniel S. Christian • future of higher education • game-changing environment • leadership • new business models in he • nontraditional • perfect storm • strategy • traditional • United States • Walmart of Education

Navigating the “new normal”

On 11/16/2010, in budgets, business side of he, colleges, community colleges, cost of getting a degree, economics, future of higher education, game-changing environment, leadership, legislatures / government / legal, new business models, strategy, universities, by Daniel Christian

— resource from StraighterLine.com’s blog

CONCLUSION: THE IMPERATIVE FOR CHANGE
After centuries of excellence and decades of cyclical recessions, higher education has developed some bad habits. When facing budget shortfalls, colleges and universities have not always adequately addressed underlying cost drivers and have instead pursued short-term solutions. Today, the need for fundamental changes is inescapable. The demand for highly skilled workers is unavoidable, the economic effects of a better-educated nation unequivocal—the United States needs more college-educated workers than ever.

A half century ago, higher education helped transform America’s World War II fighting force into a powerful labor force. In unpredicted and unprecedented ways, colleges and universities expanded and met the challenge of educating millions of returning GIs. They responded with heart and innovation. Today, higher education faces another challenge. The road ahead can become a deep plunge into a fiscal morass, a financing disaster that results in severely limited opportunity — or it can become an invigorating time of innovation, strategic cutting and reinvestment, with a laser focus on student completion. Through your leadership, we can work together to reinvent higher education and ensure continued progress toward the Big Goal.

Tagged with: business side of he • colleges • community college • cost of getting an education • economics/business • future of higher education • game-changing environment • leadership • legislation • new business models in he • strategy • universities • Walmart of Education

Washington’s 2-year colleges out to beat high cost of textbooks

On 11/08/2010, in changing business models, cost of getting a degree, digital textbooks, disruption, new business models, open courseware and systems, publishing, textbooks, by Daniel Christian

Tagged with: cost of getting an education • digital textbooks • disruption • new business models in he • new publishing models • ocw • publishing • textbooks

StraighterLine’s challenge to the rising cost of college

On 11/01/2010, in cost of getting a degree, innovation, new business models, online learning, by Daniel Christian

At a time when a year of college can cost as much as a luxury car, StraighterLine Inc. offers a cheap alternative: online courses starting at $138 a month, or $999 for a year of “101”-style classes typically taken by freshmen, ranging from mathematics to English to business statistics.

From DSC:
I congratulate StraighterLine at being innovative — at making a college education much more accessible/affordable. As of November 1, 2010, StraighterLine continues to be the best candidate for the Forthcoming Walmart of Education.

Tagged with: cost of getting an education • innovation • new business models in he • online learning • Walmart of Education

Trends in college pricing

On 10/28/2010, in budgets, business side of he, cost of getting a degree, by Daniel Christian

Tagged with: budgetary • business side of he • cost of getting an education • financial aid

The need for second-order types of change…

On 10/22/2010, in blended learning, change, cost of getting a degree, hybrid learning, by Daniel Christian

The secret government plan to transform education — from EdNet News by Thomas W. Greaves

Tucked away on page 79 of the absolutely splendid National Educational Technology Plan 2010 is a gem known as Grand Challenge 4:

4.0: Identify and validate design principles for efficient and effective online learning systems and combined online and offline learning systems that produce content expertise and competencies equal to or better than those produced by the best conventional instruction in half the time at half the cost.

It is a gem because if it comes to pass, it will be truly transformative. It will have the power and potential to solve our educational woes, improve our national security and, over the long term, provide a major boost to the economy. It must be a secret because if people know about it, they are not talking about it.

Since the microcomputer revolution began in schools around 1980, educators have been looking forward to the day when computer technology would become transformative. However, even schools with a 1:1 student-computer ratio have failed to accomplish this goal.

The root cause of this lack of transformation is that in the vast majority of cases, we have employed first-order change rather than second order-change.

Our problem is analogous to the Pony Express problem. We can breed faster, stronger horses. We can do research to find better horse feed. We can require that letters be written on tissue paper. No matter what we do, there is a limit to the improvement we can get. It will still take ten days to move a letter from St. Joseph, Missouri, to San Francisco. No amount of tinkering with the system, not even the use of an electric saddle for the horse could cut the time from ten days to five days or to one day. Nor would any of these changes cut the cost of delivering a letter in half.

One common term that describes incremental improvement efforts is first-order change. The special horses of the Pony Express were a first-order change. The corresponding term describing transformative change is “second-order change.” Moving from horses to trains or trains to airplanes is an example of second-order change.

From DSC:
Also relevant here is a posting that I did (on my archived website) back from Dec 2008 entitled, The Forthcoming Walmart of Education.

Tagged with: blended learning • change • cost of getting an education • hybrid learning • Walmart of Education

Student debt and the Class of 2009

On 10/22/2010, in budgets, career development, cost of getting a degree, higher education, student-related, by Daniel Christian

Student debt and the Class of 2009 — from projectonstudentdebt.org

Our new report, released today, finds that college seniors who graduated from public and private nonprofit four-year colleges in 2009 carried an average of $24,000 in student loan debt, up 6 percent from the previous year. Meanwhile, unemployment for recent graduates climbed from 5.8 percent in 2008 to 8.7 percent in 2009 – the highest annual rate on record for college graduates aged 20-24.

The report shows that average student debt levels vary widely by state as well as by college. To view debt levels for all 50 states plus the District of Columbia and more than 1,000 public and private nonprofit four-year colleges and universities, visit our interactive online map.

Download the report, Student Debt and the Class of 2009.

Read the press release

New Data on College Insight

The Institute’s dynamic higher education data site, College InSight, lets users view student debt levels in context with data on affordability, diversity, and student success. Through its user-friendly interface, College InSight makes a wide variety of data easy to find, compare, and analyze.

Tagged with: budgetary • cost of getting an education • higher education • student-related

Massive cut in Britain

On 10/21/2010, in budgets, business side of he, change, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, UK, by Daniel Christian

Massive cut in Britain — from InsideHigherEd.com

Government funding for higher education in Britain is to be cut by 40 percent over four years, suggesting that public funding for teaching in the arts, humanities and social sciences may come to an end.

The Comprehensive Spending Review unveiled Wednesday includes a reduction in the higher education budget of £2.9 billion – from £7.1 billion to £4.2 billion – by 2014-5.

The Treasury says in a statement that the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, which oversees higher education, will “continue to fund teaching for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects.”

However, no mention is made of other subjects.

Tagged with: budgetary • business side of he • change • cost of getting an education • dangers of the status quo • future of higher education • game-changing environment • higher education • UK

The world changed, colleges missed it — from edreformer.com by Tom Vander Ark

A bunch of colleges are going out of business, only they don’t know it. They pretend that trimming costs and jacking tuition is a solution. They haven’t come to terms with a world where anyone can learn anything almost anywhere for free or cheap. Art Levine, Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, sees three major change forces: new competition, a convergence of knowledge producers, and changing demographics.
…
To Art’s list of three big change forces, add shrinking government support, the press for more accountability, and emerging technology…the next few decades will be marked by a lumpy move to competency-based learning…instant information and the ability to learn anything anywhere.
…
The shift to personal digital learning is on. Some colleges get that. Others will seek bailouts until they go out of business. Working adults are getting smart on their own terms.

From DSC:
Time will tell if Tom’s assertions are too harsh here, but personally, I think he’s right.

I have it that:

There is a bubble in higher ed
There also exists a perfect storm that’s been forming for years within higher ed and the waves are cresting
.
Institutions of higher education need to check themselves before they become the next Blockbuster
.
We must not discount the disruptive powers of technology nor the trends taking place today (for a list of some of these trends, see the work of Gary Marx, as well as Yankelovish’s (2005) Ferment and Change: Higher Education in 2015)
Innovation is not an option for those who want to survive and thrive in the future.

Specifically, I have it that we should be experimenting with:

Significantly lowering the price of getting an education (by 50%+)
Providing greater access (worldwide)
Offering content in as many different ways as we can afford to produce
Seeking to provide interactive, multimedia-based content that is created by teams of specialists — for anytime, anywhere, on any-device type of learning (24x7x365) — at any pace!
“Breaking down the walls” of the physical classroom
Pooling resources and creating consortiums
Reflecting on what it will mean if online-based exchanges are setup to help folks develop competencies
Working to change our cultures to be more willing to innovate and change
Thinking about how to become more nimble as organizations
Turning more control over to individual learner and having them create the content
Creating and implementing more cross-disciplinary assignments

Tagged with: 24x7x365 • adult learners/learning • budgetary • business side of he • competency-based learning/education • consortiums • cost of getting an education • cross-disciplinary assignments • culture • dangers of the status quo • Daniel S. Christian • disruption • educational technology • financial aid • game-changing environment • innovation • leadership • Lifelong learning • new business models in he • online learning • perfect storm • staying relevant • strategy • traditional • trends • United States • Using teams • Walmart of Education

What will universities of the future be like?

On 10/11/2010, in cost of getting a degree, future of higher education, UK, United States, by Daniel Christian

What will universities of the future be like? — from bbc.co.uk by Hannah Richardson BBC News education reporter

It’s the end of your shift, you dash for the train and switch on your mobile phone as you find yourself a seat.

You log into your degree course learning zone and discover you’ve been set a tough assignment. You download some key text books from the online university library and begin swotting.

While fellow commuters bury their heads in the Metro, you get some tips from course mates through an online forum.

By the time you reach your stop you have tapped out an essay plan on your smartphone.

Is this the university experience of the future? For an increasing number of students it’s happening now.

And with the cost of university set to rise considerably, many more are likely to study for their degrees in cheaper, more flexible ways – perhaps through digitally-based distance learning providers.

‘Mortgage-sized debts’

This is the view of the vice-chancellors’ body, Universities UK, which warns that as public funding contracts, the traditional residential university experience could become the preserve of an elite.

Tagged with: cost of getting an education • future of higher education • UK • United States • Walmart of Education

Increasing tuition — the wrong direction!

On 10/09/2010, in budgets, business side of he, cost of getting a degree, by Daniel Christian

Increases up to 25 percent proposed for college tuition in Colorado

From DSC:
Given the technological changes occurring (and the higher ed bubble already bursting in some locales), this is a step in the wrong direction.

A review of the postings over at Recession Realities in Higher Education (from Ray Schroeder) will show that while some institutions are cutting budgets and programs, others are increasing tuition. For those increasing tuition — unless the tuition is already very low in comparison to others to begin with — this is a step in the wrong direction.

Tagged with: budgetary • business side of he • cost of getting an education • Walmart of Education

While looking at the video for Sonos Controller for the iPad, I wondered…what if we could replace the selection below — i.e. the word music with the words “educational providers” — and then control which room received which signal/content?

Wow…talk about a home dedicated to learning! 🙂

Tagged with: 24x7x365 • convergence • cost of getting an education • dangers of the status quo • Daniel S. Christian • educational technology • emerging technologies • engagement • future of higher education • game-changing environment • games • innovation • intelligent tutoring • iPad • Keeping students engaged • new business models in he • new publishing models • online media • online tutoring • publishing • vision

Perhaps the last few years of scholarships for some sports…

On 10/04/2010, in budgets, business side of he, cost of getting a degree, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
If you are a parent and you have hopes of your son(s) or daughter(s) obtaining athletic scholarships, your days may be numbered. I come from an athletic scholarship background and I’m glad that I do. However, the days of athletic scholarships may be pruned down a bit in these next few years as budgets continue to get tighter and tighter.

My guess at this point is that the smaller team sports — such as tennis, golf, wrestling, softball, lacrosse, etc. — may see fewer teams competing in the future. I don’t have data here (so I may be wrong), but I would guess that programs will have to be self-sustaining in order to remain open. The larger, revenue-producing sports will probably survive.

This article points to this topic:
‘Curriculum Review’ for Athletics — from InsideHigherEd.com

So if you are counting on a college scholarship, I hope your kids are at least in high school…if not, I would not count on this source of funding in the future…at least for smaller sports (and even that may be generous w/ the time frames here).

Tagged with: budgetary • cost of getting an education • costs • financial aid

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