Stop Dumping on Student Loans
…the benefits of employment, income, wealth and a greater public good. But to participate in that greater public good, individuals must be well schooled. Reminding us of such fundamentals is…
Search Results for: college is a good investment
The Market for College Grads Keeps Changing
…a college education might well justify the investment of time and resources. Professor Harris’s pessimistic assessment of college education as an investment was almost unanimously pooh-poohed at the time, although…
A Response on Cutting College Funding
…singles out public investment in higher education as the problem, why leave it at that? Human capital investment is human capital investment, regardless of when it occurs. Why not attack…
Feel-Good “Divestment” Campaigns Thrive on Campuses
…good example. Lots of college students think they need to devote time and energy to “saving the planet,” which requires stopping the use of fossil fuels. They insist that college…
A Bit of Sarbanes-Oxley for Universities, Please
The impulse to impose Sarbanes-Oxley on universities is tempting. Indeed, formal legal mandates on conflicts of interest and the other attributes of good governance might be even more appropriate for…
The Lean Years Are Upon Higher Education
…the old notion that going to college was a good investment in the face of proof that it isn’t. Actually, there has been an imbalance between the number of “good”…
Some Pluses, Many Negatives for Higher Education
…tuition cost explosion and to a higher education bubble that cannot be sustained forever; Academic rigor has almost certainly declined over time, and there is good evidence that colleges add…
The Unstoppable MOOCs
…and doable for a small fraction the cost of conventional higher education. For many, higher education is as much a consumption good/service as it is an investment. College is where…
How Group Learning Invites Cheating
…A good example is the now suspended Stuyvesant student who carried out the cell phone scam. Asked what he wanted to be later in life, he replied, “An investment banker.”…
College Degrees Aren’t Umbrellas
…college degrees generally fare better in the labor market does not mean that they fare better because they took college courses. Nor does it mean that everyone who obtains a college degree…
Elite College ($50,000 a Year) or Good State School ($20,000)?
…loans and the development of a culture arguing that higher education is a good “investment” has made the demand for college not only larger, but also far more insensitive to…
UCLA: Still Obsessed with Diversity
…universities decide to…redouble their commitment to a fast-fading political ideology. The latest example is the impending vote by the faculty of UCLA’s College of Letters and Science that would add…
The Loan Defaults Are Coming–Here’s What to Do
…assumption of most parents and politicians that higher education is an investment in future careers. Many students regard a college education that way also, but for a large minority of…
Are Too Many People Going to College?
…credentials that would help them find good jobs. This is the updated version of the old, “College isn’t for everyone” argument. Okay, college isn’t for everyone. Besides striking me as…
What’s Wrong with the Law Schools
…have required greater financial investment (and hence higher tuition) in the enterprise. For the other co-author (Michael), teaching Friedrich Hayek’s “spontaneous order” each spring in a law school classroom is…
A Response to Peter Sacks
…should be subsidizing college attendance when it is generating positive externalities, and not subsidizing college attendance when it is not generating positive externalities. In other words, you could completely accept…
More College Aid for Low-Income Families, Please
…pay for college matters significantly throughout the college-going pipeline, from planning for college right through to graduating with a degree. In fact, a series of path-breaking studies over the past…
Three Cheers for Useless Education
…keep up with current trends, many colleges and universities market their product as “a major investment,” as the president of a selective four-year liberal arts college stated, and then added:…
The Revenge of the Unemployed Graduates
…would be able to find jobs requiring a college education. Harris’s pessimistic assessment of a college degree as an investment was almost unanimously pooh-poohed at the time. And his critics…
Are Student Debt Levels Ridiculous?
…and economic good. Indeed, states having quite onerous student loan burdens compared to other states also boast some of the most impressive statistics regarding college attainment, participation of low-income students…
Steve Jobs and Our Non-Innovating Universities
…much good, persons like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs (both college dropouts). There is no question Apple’s “bottom line” has been highly favorable during most of Steve Jobs tenure, but…
Does Student Debt Really Matter?
…of the following factors: the percentage of college graduates with debt; students’ share of college costs after state subsidies; the college participation of low-income students in a given state; the…
What Happens to the Old Universities?
…traditional colleges and universities because of what I call “cultural outcomes.” “Elite liberal arts colleges” should become more “student-oriented” but can otherwise expect to ride out the transition. “Less well-endowed…
How Productive Do Professors Have to Be?
…suggest that outstanding teaching is not valued as highly as outstanding research skills. Salaries vary greatly by department, Diehl explained—teaching college-level economics pays far better than teaching college-level French—but a…
Why College Still Matters
…graduates of more prestigious colleges that pursuing a bachelor’s degree was a good investment for them. Relying on Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the critics also suggest that for many…
The One Trillion Dollar Misunderstanding
…investment in future careers. Many students regard a college education that way also, but for a large minority of students college is not investment but consumption: four fun-filled years before…
Why Do the Big Donors Give?
…gift, “encouraged” by UCLA officials in a series of discussions with the couple, was having the undergraduate college named after themselves– the USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters,…
The Campus Left’s Nostalgia Party – RSVP
…“college education” can be fit to this demand is by hollowing it out. As to those who “want a college education,” the phrase is curious. A great many students “want”…
A For-Profit University You Can Root For
…mostly already earned college degrees, Capella has been able to sidestep some of the problems that have plagued the numerous career colleges catering to marginally prepared learners aspiring to low-level…
A Terrible Time for New Ph.D.s
…nearly 90 percent of their alma maters’ revenues. Ph.D. programs, especially in the humanities, can be viewed as career colleges for the highly educated. As with career colleges, their stated…