Student loan debt climbs — WSJ.com by Justin Lahart
Student loan debt growing even as consumers pull back on other types of debt — from dailyjournal.net; originally saw this one at Academic Impressions
Push comes to shove: More American parents would like Uncle Sam to regulate college costs — from Straighterline.com
Student-loan delinquencies rise, adding to fears of an education bubble — HuffingtonPost.com
Analysis: In debt row, hints of emerging-economy crises — from Reuters by Pedro Nicolaci da Costa
WASHINGTON | Sun Jul 24, 2011 5:59pm EDT
Debt default. A ratings downgrade. Political deadlock. Such terms, once associated primarily with the developing world, now abound in the mighty United States.
Also see:
The sky has not fallen — but pieces of it could soon be hitting a campus near you.
That is one way of summing up the findings of Inside Higher Ed’s first-ever Survey of College and University Business Officers, released today in advance of the annual meeting of the National Association of College and University Business Officers. (A copy of the survey report can be found here.)
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
Surveys of the American public and of more than 1,000 college and university presidents, conducted this past spring by the Pew Research Center in association with the Chronicle of Higher Education, revealed significant concerns not only about the costs of such education, but also about its direction and goals.
More fundamentally, the business model that has characterized American higher education is at—or even past—its breaking point. Many institutions are increasingly beset by financial difficulties, and the meltdown since 2008 is but a shadow of what is to come. Undergraduate tuition has risen dramatically: at a 6.3 percent annual clip for nearly the last three decades—even faster than the much-decried 4.9 percent annual cost increases plaguing the healthcare industry. The full increase in the price of higher education has actually been hidden from many students and families over the years because gifts from alumni, earnings from private university endowments, subsidies from state tax revenues for public universities, and federal subsidies for students have been used to mitigate some costs. But universities are exhausting these mechanisms.
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A Thriving, Disruptive Innovation
Just at the moment when these challenges to established higher education have arisen and compounded, another group of universities has arisen whose financial health is strong and enrollments have been booming. And yet the brands of these schools are weak and their campuses far from glamorous; sometimes the campuses are even nonexistent from the perspective of students, as online learning has largely driven their growth. How could this upstart group be so successful when the rest of higher education is treading water at best?
DIY U: The Future Of Learning [Video] — from FastCompany.com by Anya Kamenetz
From Khan Academy and TED Talks to instructional YouTube videos, the future of learning is open and free.
A related comment from DSC:
I have it that higher ed is a bubble and if an increasingly larger group of people can’t afford it — yet still want it — then, in my book, that’s a major problem.
I’ll use myself as an example. My wife and I could not begin to afford to send our kids to many of the colleges and universities out there right now — today, in 2011! (Let alone in 2017+ when our kids start hitting the college scene.) I should note that our kids are doing well in school and are very talented, hard workers. I should also point out that my wife and I place a very high value on being educated and we are both trying to pass that value along to the next generation.
But if you tell me that higher ed is not a bubble, the first question I will ask you (besides what planet are you living on) is what’s the gross income for your household? If you are making close to 6 figures, I highly doubt that your perspective will be the same as that of folks from households who are making $20,000-$50,000 a year. In fact, my hunch is that those who say higher ed is not a bubble are:
My take on this is that all of us in higher education need to figure out how we can greatly reduce the price of higher education. It shouldn’t be how well you understand the system or how many hours of work you have done to figure out the grants, loans, etc. that exist out there.
NEVER again should we be pleased with ANY sort of increase in tuition. Never again should we say, “Well, our tuition only went up by ___% which is the smallest increase in our history (or the smallest increase relative to our competition…or the smallest in our state/country/nation).”
Such a situation is causing a backlash against the current higher education environment/setup.
As such, we need to constantly be looking to reinvent ourselves — and to staying relevant.
Addendum on 6/17/11:
Potential disrupters in the higher education space — Lloyd Armstrong, University Professor and Provost Emeritus at the University of Southern California
Excerpt:
…I thought it useful to introduce a blogroll on some companies, institutions, think tanks, etc. that seem to me to be doing interesting things that might well turn out to be disruptive for various aspects higher education, and/or sustaining for others. The blogroll will not seek to be all-inclusive. Rather, it will be indicative of areas in which I find that very interesting things are happening. I will add more sites to the roll from time to time as I see things that attract my interest.
The original set of sites I have chosen give an idea of some of the areas that I find to be interesting from the standpoint of disruption of traditional higher education. My descriptions of each are too short to serve them well, so follow some of the links for more details. Most are working on concepts that can be used in both sustaining and disrupting modes.
From ‘gainful employment’ to lower college costs — from The WashingtonPost.com by Matt Miller
Excerpt (extra emphasis by DSC):
But whatever happens as these new rules are implemented in next few years, for-profit colleges will never get out from under a cloud, nor make good on their potential social contribution, until they pass on to students the benefit of the lower educational cost structures they are creating. To date, they’ve been reluctant to do so, because, for public companies especially, it seems tantamount to ignoring the shareholder interest in maximizing profits.
But this is shortsighted. For one thing, it ensures a perennial political backlash, which can’t serve shareholders over time. And beyond this, as a business matter, it means there’s a huge opening for any number of “Wal-Marts of higher ed” to win a vast market of underserved or overindebted young Americans (or mid-career workers who seek training) who desperately need affordable, high-quality educational services. The strategy should be to lower costs, lower prices and “make it up on the volume.” The firms that do this and earn a reputation for quality will force the traditional college world to reexamine its own inefficient practices, to the lasting benefit of students and the governments that fund them.
From DSC:
Also see:
Is Higher Education Ready for “The Education Bubble”? — from CampusTechnology.com by Trent Batson
Excerpts:
American higher education–the jewel in the global crown of universal education, with nearly a quarter of the total number of higher education institutions in the world, and including graduate programs that are the envy of the world–is facing the prospect of being the next bubble to burst. Technology is both a culprit and a promising ally.
The spread of information technology, and its infusion into our culture, has opened the world to learning opportunities–raising expectations for college graduates and changing the terms of success.
Is American higher education ready to either prevent the bubble from bursting or to weather the storm when it does burst? And what is the bubble?
…
The bubble, as we can see by all the dimensions just described, is, in fact, a potential “perfect storm.”
…
But this effort must also result from a presidential-level decree: “The learning theory that fit so well in our culture and with the dominant technology pre-1995 (print-based and paper-based technologies), now is not working very well for any of us, so we have to change. Each of you on campus has sincerely and devotedly committed yourselves fully to learning, but now we know that our learning epistemology is less and less appropriate. This is not your fault; it is simply a time of incredible human growth; it is a time of rapid evolution in our culture; a time of re-shaping our economy. We must transform or become irrelevant.”
From DSC:
Good to see I have some company in these perspectives; thanks for the article Trent. Also see:
From 5/21/09
Stepping up to the Genius Bar — from CampusTechnology.com by John Waters
As they reconsider their role on campus, college bookstores take inspiration from the Apple Store.
Excerpt:
“The advent of this technology isn’t going to eliminate the need for college bookstores,” insists Isabella Hinds, director of digital strategies and products for Follett Higher Education Group. “It’s disruptive–or it will be, eventually–but the role of the bookstore is already evolving. The college bookstore of the future is likely to be a very different environment. The digital textbook is going to be one of a range of course-material offerings…delivered on a variety of devices. As these options proliferate, the expertise of the bookstore personnel will be much more important. They will become trusted advisers who can talk knowledgeably about the strengths and weaknesses of increasingly sophisticated and complex products.”
In other words, the college bookstore of the future is going to look a lot like an Apple Store.
Daniel Christian:
A Vision of Our Future Learning Ecosystems
In the near future, as the computer, the television, the telephone (and more) continues to converge, we will most likely enjoy even more powerful capabilities to conveniently create and share our content as well as participate in a global learning ecosystem — whether that be from within our homes and/or from within our schools, colleges, universities and businesses throughout the world.
We will be teachers and students at the same time — even within the same hour — with online-based learning exchanges taking place all over the virtual and physical world. Subject Matter Experts (SME’s) — in the form of online-based tutors, instructors, teachers, and professors — will be available on demand. Even more powerful/accurate/helpful learning engines will be involved behind the scenes in delivering up personalized, customized learning — available 24x7x365. Cloud-based learner profiles may enter the equation as well.
The chances for creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship that are coming will be mind-blowing! What employers will be looking for — and where they can look for it — may change as well.
What we know today as the “television” will most likely play a significant role in this learning ecosystem of the future. But it won’t be like the TV we’ve come to know. It will be much more interactive and will be aware of who is using it — and what that person is interested in learning about. Technologies/applications like Apple’s AirPlay will become more standard, allowing a person to move from device to device without missing a beat. Transmedia storytellers will thrive in this environment!
Much of the professionally done content will be created by teams of specialists, including the publishers of educational content, and the in-house teams of specialists within colleges, universities, and corporations around the globe. Perhaps consortiums of colleges/universities will each contribute some of the content — more readily accepting previous coursework that was delivered via their consortium’s membership.
An additional thought regarding higher education and K-12 and their Smart Classrooms/Spaces:
For input devices…
The “chalkboards” of the future may be transparent, or they may be on top of a drawing board-sized table or they may be tablet-based. But whatever form they take and whatever is displayed upon them, the ability to annotate will be there; with the resulting graphics saved and instantly distributed. (Eventually, we may get to voice-controlled Smart Classrooms, but we have a ways to go in that area…)
Below are some of the graphics that capture a bit of what I’m seeing in my mind…and in our futures.
Alternatively available as a PowerPoint Presentation (audio forthcoming in a future version)
— from Daniel S. Christian | April 2011
Addendum on 4-14-11:
