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thePeorian.com
The Present
C
osts are rising and en-
rollments are falling at
private colleges and uni-
versities while state support for
public colleges and universities
is declining. Meanwhile, student
debt has grown dramatically
and for-profit schools are being
blamed for exploiting students,
families and government-aid
programs.
Elsewhere, college courses
available online have steadily
grown since the advent of “Web
2.0”
interactive technologies a de-
cade ago. Online classes dubbed
“
massive open online courses”
(
MOOC) are proliferating, led
by organizations such as Udac-
ity and Coursera, both launched
last year with the involvement of
recognized and respected institu-
tions such as Harvard and MIT.
They threaten to further dis-
rupt higher education.
Summarizing common
criticisms of higher education,
ex-Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana,
now president of Purdue Univer-
sity, also mentioned “athletics,
particularly in NCAA Division
I, is out of control financially,”
and “an operating model [that]
is antiquated and soon to be
displaced.”
COST
.
At Peoria’s Bradley Uni-
versity, administrators reported
that the price for tuition and fees
went up from $23,950 in 2009-
10
to $27,920 this year, a 16.5
percent increase. While conced-
ing that state-assisted universi-
ties including the University of
Illinois-Urbana, and Illinois State
University cost about half that
amount, Bradley points out that
its tuition rates are less expensive
than nearby private schools such
as Augustana, De Paul, Illinois
Wesleyan, Knox and Northwest-
ern. Student debt is now more
than $900 billion, according to the
Federal Reserve of New York.
ENROLLMENT
.
More than 40
percent of private colleges and
universities saw enrollments
drop last year. Bradley reported
an 8 percent decline in freshmen
enrollment from 2009-10 to this
academic year, and drops over
the same period for all under-
graduates (-3.7 percent) and for
graduate students (-21.8 percent).
STATE SUPPORT
.
Dozens
of states in recent years have
trimmed funding for high educa-
tion. In Fiscal Year 2013, Illinois
cut funding for public universi-
ties 6.08 percent from the year
before; community colleges were
cut 6.74 percent.
PROFIT ABOVE ALL.
Higher
education’s for-profit sector has
worse outcomes than traditional,
nonprofit college and universities
(
see box).
Still, a college degree can
cushion workers from eroding
employment and falling wages,
according to a new study from
the Pew Center, “How Much
Protection Does A College Degree
Afford?”
“
The findings show that the
deteriorating market situation of
recent college graduates, while
real and troubling, is nonetheless
less extreme than that experi-
enced by less-educated groups,”
Pew’s researchers said.
CREATIVE
DESTRUCTION?
Higher education facing big changes,
now and in the near future
by Bill Knight
The Present
CONTINUED ON PAGE 20
