A review of an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education on the cost and quality of higher education
In his article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Kevin Carey asserts that higher education must attend to the real value of education provided to students. And that value should drive how much tuition costs. He does not believe that value of education is used in setting prices. He states that “With a college degree now an unquestioned requirement for high-paying jobs, and few ways for new competitors to enter the traditional four-year market, there seems to be no practical limit to how much colleges can boost prices.” And he says that “the college-cost crisis is not about a lack of money—it’s about lack of information. And the Washington higher education lobby seems bound and determined to keep certain kinds of higher education information firmly under wraps.” His argument is that, since there is no information on matters such as learning outcomes, the value provided is missing. And, in its place, “price and quality in higher education are assumed to be the same.” He calls for breaking “the iron bond between price and perceived quality.”
This is precisely what the institutions in the Presidents’ Forum are saying. While the institutions involved are “non-traditional” in that they serve adults online, they see a strength in being learning outcomes focused and having data on demonstrations of learning outcomes. And, through the Transparency by Design effort, these institutions are committed to providing the kind of information that Carey calls for in order to allow outcomes to allow a more meaningful determination of quality. Transparency by Design has been developed as the only accountability effort that will provide reports on program specialization learning outcomes. Intended for prospective adult students, Transparency by Design will provide for the kind of information Carey calls for, and will provide a new and different way to assess and define quality.
Does Carey’s argument make sense to you? If so, is Transparency by Design a possible solution? What suggestions to you have to allow quality to be determined by results rather than price?
Mike
Share This6 Responses to “A review of an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education on the cost and quality of higher education”
Mike Offerman Says:
Jason, thanks for your post and question. I think it is wonderful that some institutions have sufficient endowments to do what some of the elites are doing. Certainly at the national level there is increased concern about the large endowments and how these are benefitting students. Actions like this is one way to respond to that concern. But, as the Star-Tribune article points out, even the best intentioned actions can have unintended consequences such as placing pressure on outstanding colleges that do not have such large endowments and casting a perceived stigma on taking out loans.
But, to your question about the impact on “non-traditional” colleges and universities, I think the impact is negligible. Keep in mind that the elite schools’ actions are directed at a subset of the roughly 15% of higher education students who attend college full-time and on-campus immediately after high school. The other 85% are less likely to attend the elite schools that have sufficient endowments to do what some, like Harvard, have done. One reason for asserting “the other 85 percent” is that increased attention must be given to this higher education population. Public policy consideration, including financial support, needs to include this population in order to increase access to higher education for more than the elite students.
Caroline Hatfield Says:
Actually I have wondered how come some colleges charge one price per semester and other colleges charge a lesser amount for the same type of classes. I also am aware that not all the tuition goes to the instructor, because I have been teaching as a part-time instructor at a local college for adults and the pay is not as good as the tuition charged the students. I’m not complaining just wondering.
Steven Ham Says:
Costs go up for schools like it does for everyone else. Creative financing can be of great value to both the educational institutions and the students who use them. One thing that could help is that the government could pay a portion of ones education costs and be paid back through public service.
Janet Duke Says:
Dr.Offerman:
This is a wondeful endeavor indeed.
I have mixed feelings about increases in tuition. I understand that it is a necessary though. One only has to look around at the rising price of gasoline, and grocery. Long gone are the days when apples were a nickle.
The other feeling is that legislature should allocate school fundings where it would be more equitable towards schools that are more needy, due to the socio-economic make up of their constituency/students. I think.
Reading this breakdown does not provide any reassurance of better days to come in the rising cost of attending college.I am attaching the URL.
http://www.highereducation.org/reports/affordability_supplement/affordability_1.shtml
Janet
johnathan rose, PhD, MBA Says:
MIT has shown the higher education world just how un-important tuition can be. Now any one can take actual courses at MIT online in undergraduate and graduate programs with the actual professor for free.MIT is adequaetly financed thru alternate sources and has re-dedicated the institute to pure education. Ironically MIT is no where near the most heavly endowed university in the country!
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Welcome to The Other 85 Percent. So what does "the other 85 percent" refer to? Research has shown that only about 15 percent of higher education students still fit the traditional definition of young adults age 18 to 22 who live on campus and go to school full time. more
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Jason Scherschligt Says:
Dr. Offerman, there was an article the Mpls Star Tribune just this morning on how new financing practices at elite universities (e.g., Harvard) are affecting top private colleges (e.g., Carleton). You can see the article here:
http://www.startribune.com/local/16238427.html
Your post about the “iron bond between price and (perceived) quality” seems to provide an interesting commentary on the issues raised by the newspaper article. Do the loan-elimination programs by heavily endowed elite schools have any effect on Capella and other “non-traditionals”?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.
March 5th, 2008 at 3:30 pm