Public universities face a couple of perennial questions: Should they follow a “low-tuition/low-aid” model (in which the state subsidizes even rich kids by charging them relatively little — but saves by not having to provide extensive need-based scholarships)? Or a “high-tuition/high-aid” model in which the state helps those who can’t pay the high price by increasing need-based aid?
Traditionally, most states have followed the low-tuition model, which is one reason why 75 percent of all students attend public universities. On the other hand, tuition has been rising so rapidly that it is hard to call spending $16,140 a year on tuition, fees, and room and board a “low-tuition” model (that’s Kiplinger’s national average for public universities).
In North Carolina the tuition debate is particularly heated. UNC–Chapel Hill prides itself on being the “best value” in Kiplinger’s every year, but the pressure is on to increase tuition and fees dramatically at several UNC schools. This is in spite of the state constitution’s provision that higher education should be free “as far as practicable” to the state’s residents. In a comment, I argue that the best way to keep tuition low is to cut costs – a remedy that usually goes unmentioned in higher-ed circles.
What a thought - colleges should actually cut costs, rather than just demand more money from parents and taxpayers. I'll donate $1000 to charity in the name of the first person who can identify any American college that has cut costs by requiring their professors to work for a living. You know, actually teach and do other useful things, rather than write the latest "research" essay on Transgendered 16th Century Eskimos, or a similarly vapid topic.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseColleges cutting costs instead of just passing the buck to taxpayers and students? Why, that's just crazy talk! Next, you'll probably suggest eliminating "unnecessary" administrators and departments. Never happen.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseUniversity of the South cut tuition 10% last year. Sewanee, is a strong (but small) liberal arts college where teaching comes before research.
Mike
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI'm a STEM professor, I've had two weekends this semester that I wasn't working most of the weekend, and tend to come in at 7:30AM, leave at 6:00PM during the week, and put in an hour or two at home. It's not clear how giving up sleep and working harder will cut tuition costs. Moreover, during my time as a faculty I've brought in more in funding than my salary costs, of which 1/3 of this funding goes directly to the university as overhead, and for every graduate student I support (and I typically support 3 - 5) I pay tuition and benefits to the university. And within my department I am not unusual, and am a relative piker relative to assistant professors. My graduate students tell me that they don't want to be faculty because they don't want to live the kind of life I live.
In the time I've been on the faculty, I've seen numerous Vice Presidents hired. I've seen the number of associate deans go up. I've seen diversity offices established. And I've seen an administration that grows and grows, creating work for the faculty that doesn't improve teaching or research but that does allow them to add lines to their resumes to get the next higher paying job. These people tend to make much more than the average faculty, tend to have assistants and associates to help do whatever they do, and tend to have lots of "administrative assistants" to manage their lives. I suspect the average VP costs us $1,000,000+ in total cost once you add in the other support personnel and their cost. Moreover, their are various charts out their that show that the growth in administrators trends with tuition increases, but the growth in faculty cost does not.
Now, I'm not complaining because I enjoy what I do and I like having a direct, positive impact on my student's lives. But it is delusional to think that ignoring the high-growth parts of the university budget and squeezing the low-growh parts will reduce tuition costs. The growth in tuition is a major problem, but let's attack the causes of that problem and not fall prey to envy or bitterness or whatever it is that makes people automatically attack the research and teaching faculty as the source of the problem.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI agree with everything you write - with one exception. STEM professors do lots of incredibly useful work. Their research over the decades has greatly enhanced our quality of life: think medical and technological advances. Teaching the next generation of STEM students is among the highest of callings.
Your criticisms of administrative bloat are dead on. When will liberals who blindly defend the higher ed establishment sound off about this absurd waste of money?
I differ on this point. Those of us who criticize the unjustified cost increases in higher ed aren't falling prey to envy or bitterness. We, too, are dismayed by the never ending excesses of administrative fat. We're also appalled by the destruction of the humanities, the focus on the trivialities like my example of Transgendered 16th Century Eskimos (I made this example up, but reality is even stranger than this).
Not all research is worth doing, especially at taxpayer, student, and parents' expense. I suspect that STEM professors also shake their heads at the nonsense so prevalent in humanities departments these days.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseJane, room and board are not tuition and fees. Those are life expenses that someone would pay regardless of whether he/she attends college. And what someone pays in room and board is due more to location rather than the tuition and fees at a school. Most students live off campus, and a college doesn't set those prices for apartments and groceries. Subtract out the room and board -- which are life expenses, not college expenses -- and maybe the kiplinger cost is 8000 or so? Is that really outrageous?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseUniversity of the South (aka Sewanee) cut tuition by 10% last year. While Sewanee does some research it is primarily a teaching University with a strong canon courses required for all students.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI think universities will end up opting for the "high tuition/low aid" model.
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