{"id":144,"date":"2018-05-12T18:24:51","date_gmt":"2018-05-12T22:24:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/cheb\/?p=144"},"modified":"2018-05-12T18:24:51","modified_gmt":"2018-05-12T22:24:51","slug":"the-higher-education-bubble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/cheb\/2018\/05\/12\/the-higher-education-bubble\/","title":{"rendered":"The Higher Education Bubble"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reynolds, G. H. (2012).\u00a0 The higher education bubble.<\/em> New York: Encounter books (Broadside #29).<\/p>\n

\"\"This brief book (\u201cbroadside\u201d) is a sobering account of the rising costs of higher education, and the heights reached by student educational indebtedness.\u00a0 Reynolds describes this as an unsustainable \u201cbubble\u201d similar to the recent housing bubble (and equally likely to crash).\u00a0 There is a similar history of \u201creadily available credit\u201d (notably via student loans) and a culture of using it to finance higher education. Unfortunately, most students (and parents) do not realize the full financial burden of student loan payments (and failure to make them), and they believe a college education is a \u201cticket to future prosperity\u201d.<\/p>\n

The assumption that college degrees should be \u201ceconomically productive\u201d (and other degrees are bad investments) is illustrated by an example of a woman who accrued nearly $100,000 in student debt to finance a degree in Religious and Women\u2019s Studies that \u201cwon\u2019t make [her] any money\u201d (p. 4).<\/p>\n

The argument is of course flawed by the equation of \u201ceducation\u201d with \u201cfuture prosperity\u201d (i.e. gainful employment), which is quite contrary to a Catholic philosophy of education (education to gain knowledge and understanding, to become a \u201cbetter person\u201d and contribute to society). However, the economic argument is very prevalent, as are the reality of student debt and the mentality of \u201cpaying for a degree\u201d to get a good job \u2013 and an argument that education should focus on \u201cfostering economic value\u201d (p.6).<\/p>\n

Reynolds\u2019 point is that a university education does not necessarily lead to a high-paying job, and even when it does, the extra money is typically outweighed by the debt repayments (especially interest payments) – so the economic argument is essentially flawed.\u00a0 He likens student debt to a form of \u201cdebt slavery\u201d, and also notes that the need to earn enough to make the payments often limit their career choices in ways they had not foreseen (p. 15).<\/p>\n

Explaining the high cost of education, Reynolds states that \u201chigher education has been living high on the hog\u201d (p. 19) He cites faculty salaries as a factor, but the \u201cdramatic\u201d increases have been in administrative salaries and building costs (often buildings such as recreation centers designed to attract potential students).\u00a0 Cuts in government funding for education (a trend that has increased markedly since this book) resulted in ever-increasing tuition and\/or institutional borrowing.\u00a0 To deal with this problem of the \u201cbursting bubble\u201d, Reynolds predicts cost-cutting (\u201cadministration \u2026 will be cut last; actual teaching will be cut first\u201d), mergers and even closings of \u201cschools that can no longer operate\u201d (p. 21).\u00a0 He expects \u201cschools at the top of the food chain\u201d such as the Ivy League universities to survive, but \u201cprivate schools with modest reputations\u201d limited endowments and high tuition will be vulnerable to collapse.<\/p>\n

Reynolds\u2019 advice to students is not to go to colleges that require then to borrow a lot of money to attend, or don\u2019t go to college at all (he predicts the fastest growing jobs in the future will focus on \u201con-the-job training\u201d p. 28). \u00a0He similarly advises universities not to borrow, but to \u201ccut costs while simultaneously increasing quality\u201d (p. 31).\u00a0 By \u201cquality\u201d he means \u201clearning useful things\u201d (and he is in favor of on-line education to save money). However, a telling point in this otherwise depressing argument is that education should become \u201cmore rigorous\u201d, although he does not say how.<\/p>\n

Another argument is that employers as well as students should stop using a college degree as a \u201ccredentialing requirement\u201d and find alternatives (unspecified, but \u201cfilling that need will make someone rich\u201d, p. 41).<\/p>\n

Reynolds complains about the cost of senior (faculty) salaries and \u201cperks\u201d, but also notes that the common response of reducing full-time faculty and using term hires and adjuncts to teach large introductory courses will result in \u201ca hollowed out university\u201d (p.43).\u00a0 He notes that<\/p>\n

\u201cThe higher education bubble is not bursting because of a shortage of money.\u00a0 It is bursting because of a shortage of value. The solution is to improve the product, not to increase the subsidy\u201d (p. 46).<\/p>\n

Questions<\/h4>\n
    \n
  1. How sound is Reynolds\u2019 economic argument, particularly the argument that many students attend college unnecessarily?<\/li>\n
  2. Does this argument necessarily lead to higher education being restricted to a privileged few? And\/or more \u201cvocational\u201d colleges (providing \u201cuseful\u201d degrees) than traditional universities?\u00a0 (what would be the consequences of this?)<\/li>\n
  3. Reynolds is a big advocate for online courses, but can we reconcile these with a Catholic philosophy of education?<\/li>\n
  4. How might we interpret Reynolds\u2019 remark about improving value? He likely means value in economic terms, but are there are other ways to read this?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Reynolds, G. H. (2012).\u00a0 The higher education bubble. New York: Encounter books (Broadside #29). This brief book (\u201cbroadside\u201d) is a sobering account of the rising costs of higher education, and the heights reached by student educational indebtedness.\u00a0 Reynolds describes this as an unsustainable \u201cbubble\u201d similar to the recent housing bubble (and equally likely to crash).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-challenges-in-higher-education"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/cheb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/cheb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/cheb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/cheb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/116"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/cheb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/cheb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":146,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/cheb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions\/146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/cheb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/cheb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/cheb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}