undefined | Better HN

0 pointsphkahler2y ago0 comments

>> All attempts to track prices over time have some flaw.

The thing to compare tuition to is teacher pay. At today's tuition rates, 10 or less students would pay their professors salary. Average class sizes are much larger, so it's obvious the money is going somewhere else. Done. Forget CPI, the schools are pricing based on perceived value, not cost, and an unlimited supply of government backed loans.

0 comments

1 comments · 1 top-level

ndriscoll2y ago

This seems to be the most obvious point to me: at my alma mater, you could literally rent a classroom at the university for $90/4 hours[0], or $7200 for 16 weeks at 20 hours/week. Then we have assistant/associate professors in the college of engineering who have been working at the university for 10+ years making $45k or less[1] for a full time position. One of them could rent a room, charge 10 students $6.7k each, and come away with $60k. They'd make significantly more than they are now, the students would receive better/more direct instruction, and the students would be paying ~half list price ($6700 vs $13200 for in-state students)[2]. Even with merit scholarships, if you had a 3.7 high school GPA, that saves you $5000[3], so you're on the hook for $8k, and 10 kids renting a room with an assistant professor would still be cheaper. The numbers are even more absurd for out-of-state students.

Clearly, the value proposition for a university is not the education it provides. Even if you wanted the atmosphere of being on campus all day, the rent-a-room strategy would give you that for far less with smaller classes. Obviously it would be hard to be taken seriously if you did this, so the issue is that you must pass through the university system to receive credentials, and for many fields these credentials are non-optional.

Even spending $100k/yr on a PhD evaluating students full-time, and spending an entire 1 week per student to rigorously personally evaluate them 1:1, you could charge $2000 total to attempt an evaluation for credentials, allowing non-traditional students to self-study for free. If we want to make education and accreditation more attainable for everyone, we need to separate granting of credentials from studying. Study requirements are redundant with a rigorous exam, and particularly for fields where exams are already in place for credentials (law, accounting, capital-E Engineering, etc.), study requirements should be barred.

[0] https://registrar.arizona.edu/support-services/classroom-ser...

[1] https://www.azcentral.com/pages/interactives/news/local/ariz...

[2] https://www.arizona.edu/admissions/first-year/cost

[3] https://financialaid.arizona.edu/types-of-aid/scholarships/i...

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse