Most campuses in the United States are sitting empty. Courses are online, students are at home. And administrators are trying to figure out how to make the finances of that work.
“The math is not pretty,” says Robert Kelchen, who studies higher ed finance at Seton Hall University in New Jersey. “Colleges are stressed both on the revenue side and on the expenditure side.”
On one end of the equation, colleges are spending money to take classes online, in some situations purchasing software, training professors or outsourcing to online-only institutions. That’s on top of refunds for room and board and parts of tuition. On the other side, money isn’t coming back in, in the form of expected tuition and revenue from events such as athletics, conferences on campus and summer camps. College endowments, which can sometimes offer some insulation from hard financial times, have also taken a hit.
“This will touch every sector of higher education. Every size of institution, every region of the country,” says Dominique Baker, a professor of education policy at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
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Colleges and Universities have turned themselves into for profit institutions over the last 40 years in the same manner as hospitals while working under the cover of “not for profit” status. College executive salaries have skyrocketed along with tuition feeding off the student loan program. The costs of providing the education have decreased mainly through the use of adjunct faculty and graduate assistants. The money has funneled upwards as in other industires. This recipe is unsustainable and it is my hope that fundemental, structural cahnge will occur altering the cost and provision structures of education for the benefit of the population as a whole.
I agree with you Albus, we also get fewer really good professors and therefor the outcome of a college/university education becomes less important and we do not get an education that teaches students to open their minds and explore reality to the point where they can be of benefit to humanity.