Free University Education
Should university be free?
I'm a third culture kid. I spent many years in different countries with my globe trotting family. In some countries university education was free, in others some of it was, and in others it was pay as you go.In all of these countries working to get a university education was a privilege, not a right.
American Universities Cost Too Much Now
American universities, which in many cases are world renowned, have become bloated. The real dollar cost for a college education as more than doubled since the 1980s. ( Forbes ). The facilities are world class, the large public universities are major employers in their states. University of California employees about 227,000 people directly (doesn't include support and service contracts), The University of Michigan employees number almost 45,000.Large universities have budgets to match. Most of the budget expansion in the last 30 years has resulted from changes in the academic landscape. Key contributors to the cost expansion:
- Increased demand pushed by secondary education's near locked focus on colledge educations
- Availability of student loans
- Competition between universities to attract students leading to facilities, non-academic staff, and other non-academic expansions
- Lost state funding has pushed tuition hikes which is even higher than the replacement rate due to the other factors
All these factors combine to increase the cost of university while at the same time the lifetime value of a college education seems to have gone down.
Devaluation
College degrees mean less and less these days for a number of reasons. Essentially there are too many desperately in-debt graduates with questionable qualifications learned from disinterested faculty applying for too few available jobs. ( LifeHack ). In many ways, to get a job, having a college degree has replaced the requirement for having a high school diploma of a generation ago. This is a sign of the ongoing devaluation of a university education.
Now days, it seems that only a Master's degree or other advanced degree, sets applicants apart.
Benefits of Reforming the System
Imagine if instructors were motivated and free to teach (not just research), students were not in-debt and so could build their careers, education could be pursued by those who wanted it and who qualified to pursue it.
Free - Yes?
We should make public universities free to all of those who qualify for a place. This means that we'd have to have a testing/entry process that is secured from corruption like we've seen this year with the admissions scandal. Essentially we'd be able to fund a certain number of free student seats for university. Those who pass and qualify based on testing - get access to free education at the Public University of their choice. This would be tuition, not room and board.
The free tuition should be based solely on merit, not financial need. For those who can't pass into university or college free tuition, we should offer trade school and apprenticeship programs. This would allow those not suited to a classic university style education to pursue a skilled trade.
Of course we'd have to have controls and audits as well as ovesight of the programs. Tradeschools don't all get blanket funding - again it's headcount based and each school must be assessed, checked, and measured for success. Those that fail are defunded.
Details
Oh god yes. Setting up a system to administer something like this would be an immense challenge. If we had an employer oriented apprenticeship program that partnered with them we could address the long term needs of employers and business.
I don't have the answers - this only sounds like the right thing to do. Let's do it.