Our universities appear to be on top of the world.
It has become almost a necessity that a young person has a university degree in order to obtain a good job. The prestige of North American universities never has been higher, but that seems to be on the verge of a major change.
The American Enterprise Institute and the Goldwater Institute both have written reports criticizing universities. The U.S. News and World Report, in its annual survey of post-graduate institutions, has condemned them, arguing they must begin serious cost-cutting and painful reorganizations.
Fees at those academic centres have climbed at an incredibly rapid rate, far above the inflation rate or the ability of families to pay tuition and related costs. Fees have climbed outrageously for reasons that are unjustified.
For example, two generations ago the full cost of a post-graduate degree at a top flight university was about $5,000 (just over $70,000 in current dollars). Today the comparable charge would be around $190,000. That kind of escalation calls into question university education and its so-called costs.
It has been noted that in 1961, students at universities spent 24 hours a week studying, but currently that has declined to a mere 14 hours a week. Of course, in Asian countries, youngsters are far more diligent.
Part of the explanation for that lies with the professors. Their promotion and tenure, with a wink and nudge, depends on the research their students perform for their faculty or heads of departments. At some U.S. universities, professors are given sabbaticals every third year; those formerly were granted after seven years.
Do the papers prepared by university faculties contribute to economic dynamism? Unfortunately, their published material often is so esoteric that it has almost no value. The exceptions are in scientific fields.
Another factor responsible for rising costs in universities is administrative bloat. Universities grant their chief executives annual salaries befitting a major corporation. Yale University has awarded the administrator of its endowment fund a bonus of over $1-million dollars, but the following two years that fund has fallen by around 50 per cent.
Administrative spending has climbed about three times faster than the inflation rate. At some institutions, almost half the full-time employees are administrators. Salaries and perks at some places are disgraceful. One would hope that competition among universities and the availability of the internet would entail changes. The trouble is that rivalry revolves on academic reputation and materials professors publish. Lavish pay for the teaching staff does little to enhance students’ ability to perform well in the real world.
In the current economic climate, there will be an increased unwillingness to waste so much money for a university degree that does not represent anything really important. Unless universities respond with a wake-up call, they are doomed to fall into disrepute.