Wednesday, May 27, 2020

WILL COLLEGES BECOME PLAYGROUNDS FOR THE RICH AGAIN?


The news about a college closing got my attention. I had a friend who attended the soon-to-be-closed MacMurray (CNBC).

The cost of a college degree has consumed more and more of the limited budgets available to all but wealthy Americans. In recent years, student loans were cheap and easy to come by. And the payback of loans seemed so far away as undergraduates embarked on four years of fun— often not affordable by their parents or grandparents who attended local colleges or none at all.

Of course, there always were serious students who needed a college degree to enter their chosen career. We'll still need higher education as along as advanced knowledge and skills are necessary to success in one career or another.

INFLATED ENTRY REQUIREMENTS

The idea of career entry requirements has been inflated as though those making the rules for licenses and certifications were connected to higher education and stood to profit from them. Take my profession of psychology for example. Many people have the skills to help others without earning a doctoral degree as required in psychology. Hence, the proliferation of counseling degrees requiring a master’s degree, which could be reduced to a five-year plan if people looked at evidence rather than all the delightful things they want counselors to know before helping someone. Becoming a psychological scientist is a different thing altogether. For one thing, PhD students earn income and do not pay tuition at major universities. At least, that was true for me and still true for many other psychology students.

I suspect what is true in psychology is true for people in other careers? What’s your experience?

VANITY OF VANITIES

Sometimes I think college degrees are like wearing fancy clothes or jewelry meant to impress people by being called a “doctor.” Some systems seem to reward people for earning higher degrees rather than for their competence. Getting a doctorate isn’t always evidence of higher intelligence or better skills. In fact, in the world of applied psychology, a doctorate isn’t considered the top of the game. There are added certificates each with a set of letters you can add to Ph.D. 

When new skills are desperately needed, highly intelligent people get a pass provided they can do the job. This happened in computer science years ago.

I don’t want to insult anyone. Perhaps you have an example of vanity degrees and certificates in your own profession?


COLLEGE FUN

I admit that the two years I had on a college campus were fun times. I don’t regret not having four years or the burden of a long-term college loan. I do think it would be cheaper to let High School graduates have a year off to travel on a limited budget before entering a career. According to earthtrekkers, you can travel the entire world for a year for $20 to $30k or even less than $20k depending on your needs. That sounds right given the hovels I’ve lived in. (https://www.earthtrekkers.com/how-much-does-it-cost-to-travel-around-the-world/

Maybe even 4-6 months of fun would be within some budgets.

Maybe colleges could get on the band-wagon and offer budget travel, but that might be too much to ask as so many don’t have the knack of providing affordable experiences.

Now after that fun year, serious students could pursue a less expensive online degree in fields where in-person experiences weren’t critical to their careers. Hybrid models can work too for example, going to a campus for some types of learning and completing the rest off campus. My search for “hybrid degrees on and off campus” yielded over 9 million entries on Google.


TRANSITIONS WILL BE PAINFUL

Already a lot of professors and college staff are out of work-that's got to be scary for them and their families. I imagine some administrators are quite worried. Potential students and their parents are making it clear that some types of higher education are “nonessential.” In a sense, I think Covid19 only accelerated what was already happening in higher education. The for-profit rip offs and expensive plush campus accommodations had to either be paid for or result in bankruptcy. 

Meanwhile, too many students have too much debt—$1.6 TRILLION! (Forbes; https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2020/02/03/student-loan-debt-statistics/#2111285281fe) They are going to need help in an era of high unemployment.

 I’ve got a lot of friends in higher education. And I have former students as friends too. I suspect we will have to work with politicians to deal with the debt load, but we will need to help children and grandchildren make wise decisions about their careers. And some of you might be able to challenge licensing and accreditation organizations to take a good hard look at the evidence supporting their costly requirements.

A few final thoughts

  • Education is not always the answer to everything.
  • More education is not always a good decision.
  • People can learn a lot from books and videos without having to purchase courses and degrees.
  • Finally, unnecessary education can be an evil if its financial chains interfere with personal freedom.


I won’t bash anyone’s choices. I just hope some people can avoid the burden of debts or the pursuit of nonexistent careers.
  

WILL COLLEGES BECOME PLAYGROUNDS FOR THE RICH AGAIN?

I think so.


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