Comments on: Counterparties: The lessons of tuition inflation

By: Moopheus

Moopheus — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 20:00:28 +0000

You could argue that the salaries mentioned in your pull quote are egregious, but they can’t by themselves be the cause of Purdue’s rising tuition. They’re less than 1 percent of the total budget. If tuition is rising appx. 4-5% a year (according to Purdue’s own figures), those guys would have to be giving themselves huge raises every year to have an effect.

By: mfw13

mfw13 — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 02:22:57 +0000

One of the problems is that tuition payments are being used to support the research infrastructure of the university, something from which undergraduates benefit very little. At most universities, there are many professors who do not teach at all, and many more who only teach 1-2 grad-level classes which undergrads cannot attend. If you are an undergrad who want to get value for money, you are much better off going to community college for two years and then transferring, rather than a university for all four.

By: Nameless

Nameless — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 19:19:16 +0000

If you look at college debt statistics, it took off around 2003, coincident with the big lending party on Wall Street and shortly before the Congress declared student debt non dischargeable in bankruptcy. With one hand Wall Street was peddling subprime mortgages to poor black people to Louisiana, with the other it was peddling student loans to middle-class students. And, obviously, student loans were far safer, you can’t walk away from one, that’s why subprime is gone but student loans are still around and still growing.

By: RueTheDay

RueTheDay — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 14:03:08 +0000

The brick and mortar university is a dying institution and will be a dead one if it refuses to change.

You can record a lecture and post the video online. You can pdf a set of lecture notes and post it online. You can deliver a textbook as an eBook. You can have online chat sessions with a low paid TA to answer student questions, and these same low paid TAs can grade assignments submitted from afar after running them through an online service that automatically checks for plagiarism. Once they figure out how effectively administer online tests in a way that minimizes cheating it will be game over for these bloated dinosaurs.

By: fresnodan

fresnodan — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 11:49:41 +0000

“But Mike Konczal flags a Department of Education study that shows that the government earns $1.14 back for every dollar it loans to students and asks, “What’s a good word for the opposite of a subsidy?”

Funny how all these government programs make money – makes one wonder why we have to pay taxes…

I’d like to see that Department of Edyucation Study…OH, the link is right there!

“The default rates reflect the percent of dollars that are estimated to go into default over the life of the particular cohort. The recovery rates reflect the percentage of dollars the Federal Government estimates it would collect on those defaults. Since interest continues to accrue during the period in which a loan is in default, the interest component becomes a primary
driver of total collections. Nevertheless, some loans may have little or no recoveries while others
may have substantial collections.”

Estimate, estimates…the last refuge of institutions (I’m looking at you MBIA) trying to make crappy loans look profitable.

By: TFF

TFF — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 07:32:43 +0000

I’ve got more worthless diplomas than I need, but the education has been invaluable.

Perhaps those kids who spend their college years partying should remember that? You can’t expect the diploma to do your job.

By: rjs0

rjs0 — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 00:20:18 +0000

there is a petition on the white house website to have the government to buy back the worthless diplomas…