U.S. News and World Report posted an article on the seventeen ways college campuses are changing now since ten years ago. I thought it was a fantastic article about the transition many campuses are pursuing to better accomodate college students and their parents.
Colleges have become more expensive, more technological, more consumer-oriented, and more diverse among race, gender, and class. Click on the link above.
3 comments:
I agree with a lot of points made in that article.
One issue I think that many of the points addressed (including increased consumerism, longer time to graduate, etc.) is the evolution of universities into big businesses that thrive on increased enrollment, decreased salaries, and higher frequency of advertised commodities on campuses.
Despite state-given incentives to make universities more progressive and student-accessible, many schools (especially in Michigan) have continued hiking tuition and letting go of valued professors for adjunct lecturers and beginners who will work for less money.
I'm not sure I like the way universities are changing, especially when it forces many students to take out tens of thousands of dollars in student loans, which are mostly unsubsidized.
Jake,
This phenomenon has been occurring for over two decades now. Sadly, Univ of Michigan is so expensive because it receives less money from the state government and it wants to stay competitive research-wise to its peers (e.g., Harvard, Chicago, Yale, Wisconsin, Berkeley, etc.).
Higher education is quickly depending more so on adjunct labor (just look at InsideHigherEd and the Chronicle for horror stories). As long as people are willing to take these adjunct positions, the colleges have no reason whatsoever to increase wages and make necessary reform changes. It's sad because high school teachers with Master's degress make more money.
As long as students are willing to take out more money in loans, colleges and universities have no reason to keep tuition at affordable levels. The federal Pell, Perkins and Stafford loans are almost a joke now since they barely cover 1/4 of some students' education at professional schools.
Very true.
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