Where is all the high college tuition going? My alma mater is losing money.

[decay]

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/23/educa...dents.html

Twinned with colleges’ innovations to attract and serve a new generation of students is a changed relationship between the schools and the schooled. It’s one of the most striking transformations in higher education over the last quarter-century.

It’s manifest in students’ interactions with colleges even before they enroll, as those institutions, intent on increasing the number of applications they receive and on snagging as many valedictorians, class presidents and soccer captains as they can, come at them as merchants, clamoring for their attention, competing for their affection and unfurling their wares with as much ceremony and gloss as possible.

Colleges have spruced up dormitories and diversified dining options, so that students unwind in greater comfort and ingest with more choice than ever before. To lure students and keep them content, colleges have also fashioned state-of-the-art fitness centers, sophisticated entertainment complexes and other amenities with a relevance to learning that is oblique at best.

High Point University in North Carolina is in the midst of an upgrade of more than $2 billion that includes millions toward amusements like a putting green, a game arcade, an ice cream truck and a theater with free movies and free popcorn.

[cbelt3]

FWIW... it's a chicken or egg issue... Universities started amping up the lifestyle stuff, and students started to move to it. Competition ensued.

Pisses me off. When I went college shopping with the kids the promo stuff was all lifestyle. I was all... um.. Academics ? Career path ?

College response was "Lifestyle ! Cool Dorms ! Look ! Luxury !"

Aargh. In the late 70's I sweated in the summer in a non air-conditioned tower, and did my homework wearing a parka and gloves in the winter. And walked to class a mile or so, downhill in the morning and uphill in the evening. Ate crappy cafeteria food. But the academics were rated about 9th in the country in Engineering.

The same school is all about the blingy lifestyle stuff. And Academics are rated about 50th in the country now. And yearly cost is about 15x what I paid back then.

" In a cave ! With a box of SCRAP !"

[TLB]

We're could lose as much as 20% of the current institutions over the next decade. If employers decide micro credentialing is sufficient and a 4 year degree is no longer necessary, even more will fail.

[vision63]

TLB wrote:
We're could lose as much as 20% of the current institutions over the next decade. If employers decide micro credentialing is sufficient and a 4 year degree is no longer necessary, even more will fail.

if they choose to micro-credential themselves that's on them. I saw college as a big fat learning center where I could feast on knowledge about any possible twinkling of my imagination. And doggone it, that's what I made it be. I milked that school.

And if you want to dazzle the kids, tell 'em you did it all without a single computer. My Sears Electric was my max tech.

And the chicks were free.

[Acer]

it's not going toward faculty as they swap tenure for adjunct wherever they can.

[Dennis S]

Acer wrote:
it's not going toward faculty as they swap tenure for adjunct wherever they can.

I was just going to say that.

[Ombligo]

The whole overpaid coach argument isn't really valid. While the coach is a school employee and gets paid through the school, most of the money is simply funneled through the school. The coaches school salary is generally just a base amount. The big bucks come from the athletic association which is usually a private organization making a targeted donation to the school.

[vision63]

Ombligo wrote:
The whole overpaid coach argument isn't really valid. While the coach is a school employee and gets paid through the school, most of the money is simply funneled through the school. The coaches school salary is generally just a base amount. The big bucks come from the athletic association which is usually a private organization making a targeted donation to the school.

Yup.

[hal]

Ombligo wrote:
The whole overpaid coach argument isn't really valid.

Indeed - I went to a school with no football team - you think that tuition hasn't changed there? hahaha!

And spending $3m on a football coach might mean $100M in revenue

[Dennis S]

Without football teams, it would be almost impossible to have baseball, basketball, track and field, soccer, swimming, volleyball, tennis, and on and on.