at this rate, business plan of those Brick and Mortar universities can't survive in the future. too much liabilities yet not enough revenue, especially competing with online institutions. no tax payer can support those cushy pension plans, basically working only 9 out of 12 months of the year. we're at the phase where knowledge is every where. one can learn a lot from the web ....
what? I throw you an example. .temple University(average size) raised this year 65m from charities alone! not enough revenue? you probably confusing universities with public schools.
I would suggest that instead of a "one-time surgical strike on Syria," at a cost of ~0.5 Trillion<sup>*</sup>, so our president can save face, the money would be better used to retire 50% of the student loan debt (the ave loan is ~$25,000) leaving 40 million student borrowers with an average of $12,000 in debt. I'd rather do neither, but if we are going to do one or the other, rather than kill more Syrians, with questionable benefit while putting ourselves at greater risk, I'd prefer that we assist 40 million of our own citizens. I am old enough to have learned that there are many problems that can't be solved with missiles. ___________________________ <sup>*</sup> Cost estimate from CNN Retired General Talking Head.
these days, in order to get a job worth the investment on college you have to attend an elite university for 50k per year. The return on investment isn't what the media or the universities would like you to believe.
Do you not believe there has been at least 3% real inflation? Actually it is greater than 3% so you can see why many Universities are struggling, and it is only their alum contributions and their endowments that keep them going. Do not mistake what I am saying here. I am NOT saying that it isn't a struggle for families to afford higher education, because while tuition has kept pace with real inflation, but barely, wages for much of the middle class in constant dollars have declined. Thus the squeeze. Lets work together to fix the underlying problems that have decimated the middle class.
That is a problem. And it is more complex than one might realize. It isn't all about profiteering by the publishers. There are several forces at work creating this problem.
If you had to generalize, you would have to characterize traders as anti-intellectual. You're fooling yourself if you don't read posts on ET with that in mind.
Gee, I learned something. I always thought "Liberal Arts" excluded the hard sciences. I never found value in non-science courses other than English, Logic, Philosophy and a few others. (There is a college in Michigan which requires all degree earners to have passed a course on the US Constitution. One of my colleges required a course in public speaking... both valuable.)
You are bordering on the intangible; something to do with human nature; yet it seems quite correct. And it makes us wonder whether a plethora of virtually free online courses will really make much difference.