VIEWPOINT

By Timothy Weaver, Ph.D.

Professor Emeritus

Boston University

This is the time of year when graduating seniors have questions about higher education. These answers were first posted by me on Quora.

ARE SUMMER SCHOOL CLASSES TYPICALLY EASIER?

It has not been my experience either as a student or professor that summer courses are easier than those offered in the winter and fall semesters. One of the negatives for students is the compression of time—shorter courses in the summer. Reading lists are difficult to keep up with, and longer class periods can be tiring, if not boring. The expectations of the faulty are not reduced in the summer, at least not mine or those of my colleagues. The shorter time frame for summer courses makes completing assignments more difficult. I found it to be the case that fewer students completed their assignments in time for a grade to be issued. As a result, I issued more incompletes for summer courses. On the advantage side, some summer students have time off from other professional responsibilities. This is true, for example, for teachers. Because of this teachers may find summer school easier than fall and winter because of the time available to study as a full-time student. If you are a teacher, you may find summer courses a better choice than part-time studies in the fall and winter semesters even though the same disadvantages of shorter, more intensive courses exist.

ARE UNIVERSITIES DYING AND TECH SCHOOL RISING?

Given the demand for learning and relearning in our modern life, all forms of postsecondary education will be needed. Universities are thriving while in more rural areas state colleges are not doing so well. This dichotomy is due primarily to the loss of population in rural parts of the country. Technical schools, when they are well coordinated with the needs of employers, are doing quite well. Advanced skill training will be in demand for some time to come. Employees in this category of the workforce will perhaps be more negatively impacted by AI and robotics longer term, although in 20–30 years the impact of Artificial Intelligence will be felt throughout the workforce. As this happens, the curriculum will need to change much faster than it does today. Given sunk costs in faculty and equipment, it takes time for community colleges to catch up. As the pace of change increases, the delays will increase in offering relevant training programs. As for universities, they are doing quite well. Check out the ratio of applicants they accept. Seems that the major players are becoming ever more selective—a sign demand is strong. I would expect this to continue.

DO COLLEGES ACT MORE LIKE BUSINESSES THAN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS NOWADAYS?

Colleges are businesses that provide a service. That service is the distribution of benefits that attach to levels of education. This service, as set up now, is expensive to operate, and like all services education has a limit as to how efficiently it can produce the service. Thus, it is subject to inflationary pressures. Costs rise faster than overall incomes rise, making schooling more and more expensive. The system of education is hierarchical and sequential. The system generates its own demand because as completions of a given level, e.g., high school, reach a saturation point, the relative value of completions at level erode. The only option is to continue on to next highest level. Consider the value of completing high school. While that once conveyed a relative edge in the workplace now it is a ticket to get the next level.

HOW DID PEOPLE PAY FOR COLLEGE BACK IN THE DAY? WAS IT JUST PEOPLE WHO WERE WELL OFF ENOUGH TO OUTRIGHT PAY FOR COLLEGE OR WAS THERE A WAY FOR THE POOR TO ATTEND COLLEGE?

Not sure how far back, “back in the day”, means to the author. I started in a small state college in 1958, and the tuition was not a burden for my family ($25 a semester) but the overall costs of room, board, books, social activities, clothing, transportation were. As many did, I worked on campus, borrowed money from relatives and received a bit of help from my grandparents. After the first semester I was on my own. I had a job in the library and worked during the summer. It is unlikely I could have continued but for one thing—passage of the National Defense Education Act in 1958. In that bill, students were able to borrow money through the colleges to pay for costs related to tuition, books and other expenses. The loans were to be repaid by one of two means—direct payments on the loan, or though forgiveness if one graduated in a critical need field. Education then happened to be one of those fields. I began repaying the unpaid half of the loan when my loan forgiveness expired five years later. It was the National Defense Education Act, along with the GI Bill that made college available on a widespread basis to folks in the working class. Now, what happened prior to those two landmark pieces of legislation? A very small percentage of Americans attended college. In 1940s 3.8% of women and 5.5% of men attended college. This percentage has changed dramatically. The primary factor enabling the increase in attendance is the involvement of the federal government in funding the expansion of supply. Without such government funding, the states and private colleges simply could not have accommodated the rapid rise in demand for college enrollment. However, from the 1980s to the present, the proportion of cost funded by federal and state governments has declined. The student and family portion of cost has significantly increased causing the present day debt crisis in student loans. This is the most important issue in education facing the incoming administration.

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