Yesterday, I read the article in CNN on rising tuition fees in public universities.
Let me share my thoughts.
The moment I set foot at Arizona State University for my graduate studies in Fall 2001, I sensed "opulence" oozing from every corner of the university. Please note, this is in comparison to universities in India who offer similar graduate programs. When I say "opulence", I mean the infrastructure/facilities provided to students. I don't mean it in the sense of needless display of wealth.
For my first semester, I paid "only" $5500 [approx] for 12 credits. By the time I left the university in 2004, tuition was somewhere around $8000 for 9 credits, almost a 100% increase in fee per credit.
I resigned to the fact that it was but inevitable.
If it is inevitable, what about a common American family? Where will they get money to pay such high fees? Should students accept the fact that with 4-year degree comes hugh debt? Should they settle for 2-year study rather?
I have couple of observations:
(a)
The most important and very very very essential component in a university is the quality of teaching. If a student pays $3000 for a course, he should have really learnt a lot of things at the end of the course. They should get much more than their money's worth as true knowledge is priceless.
If the teaching is poor then a whole group of students have lost a very good opportunity and wasted truck loads of money.
Now who is responsible for this?
At ASU, I noticed some professors were just not interested in teaching a course. That is fine, but why waste a students hard earned money? Is the administration aware of how much hard work students put through their life to earn that money? Are they willing to refund if the professors screw with students lives?
My wife is currently studying in San Jose State University. She is pursuing Master's degree in Software Engineering. I go through her assingments and her class lecture notes. Most of the professors teaching is atrocious. They either teach content that has no value in the market or are simply not interested in teaching.
I pay about $4000 for 9 credits for her [as we are residents of California]. Imagine the plight of a foreign student who pays much more and gets nothing in return. Who is to blame for this? How can this system be changed?
I believe there are many such universities in US that needs lot of fixing.
If a university offers very good class, students will certainly be willing to pay for it as the returns on such investments are far reaching.
(b)
Facilities: In American universities, there is far too many facilities than its counter parts in rest of the world. Whereas, there are equal or higher quality students graduating from colleges. I know this is too generic statement and lot of hand waiving. I am confidents there are some stats to prove this statement.
Now, to some extent, facilities/infrastructure augments a students learning process. But by no means is it essential. In my books, when someone says "Quality Education", facilities/infra is not up the list. Teaching and research should be up there.
In ASU, I noticed far too many facilities, to the point of luxury, being provided to students. For instance, I noticed that Macintosh machines were being recycled periodically in Computing Commons to keep up with the latest. What is the need? Most students carry their laptops anyway. Why spend loads of money on such trivial things?
There was a Media Services that used to lend out Camcorders, DVD Players etc for student projects. Noble thought. But students, my friends and I included, used to borrow them on Friday, watch movies over the weekend, and return it on Monday. A proper misuse of University property.
I know any facility can be misused. But I want everyone to think about things that can be avoided.
Ruthlessly cut down on many facilities and just focus on quality teaching and research.
(c)
Sports Programs: In American colleges sports progarms is a very part of their fabric and cannot, in most cases, be done away with. In India, the thinking is, what does college have to do with sports.
I feel, we have to tread a middle path. I am guessing that sports programs costs university a lot of money. What is the use of spending this money?
This is a very radical thought, at least from general American public's point of view. But look at the end result. University is channeling its resources on sports whereas its basic tenet, "Quality Education", that needs more resources, are lacking.
This essay of mine needs more research/refinement and thought. But I wanted to quickly pen down some observations/grievances on the tuition increase.Labels: fees, public universities, tuition