"Colleges across the nation are scrambling to close deep budget holes and some have been pushed to the brink of collapse after the coronavirus outbreak triggered financial losses that could total more than $100 million at some institutions.
Scores of colleges say they’re taking heavy hits as they refund money to students for housing, dining and parking after campuses closed last month. Many schools are losing millions more in ticket sales after athletic seasons were cut short, and some say huge shares of their reserves have been wiped out amid wild swings in the stock market.
Yet college leaders say that’s only the start of their troubles: Even if campuses reopen this fall, many worry large numbers of students won’t return. There’s widespread fear that an economic downturn will leave many Americans unable to afford tuition, and universities are forecasting steep drop-offs among international students who may think twice about studying abroad so soon after a pandemic." …
The entire US education system is irrational and incredibly wasteful. It has been ripe for a little “creative destruction” and perhaps this will kick-start the process.
Pretty sure onemoretogo was talking about US education system being ripe for change, and that’s true. In higher Ed, this country is ‘over colleged’.
The pandemic has just accelerated the disruption that was already coming…with the rise of large online universities, declining college age population starting in 2026, tuition way out of reach of middle class families…among other things.
“full pay students should receive a very substantial admissions boost”
I think that there is probably some truth to this. Some programs are going to find it harder than it was to attract students. It is not clear to me how much of a change this will be.
As an example, one thing that I have wondered about is whether admissions to veterinary school might be very marginally easier than it was in the past so long as you happen to have parents who can still afford to either pay or borrow the full cost. There might be slightly fewer students who can come up with the cash to pay enough to leave themselves with a debt that they can handle with a veterinarian’s salary.
At today’s prices I would have picked different a different university back when I was coming out of high school. It is hard to know what difference this would have made in the long run.
I have already noticed an increase in the quality of the graduates coming out of our in-state public university. I would expect this to continue.
Oh yeah, “creative destruction” does not refer to the pandemic, which is just the pin that the higher education bubble has been searching for.
Creative destruction, rather, is a term of art well known to anyone who has dipped her toe into the dismal science. Economist Joseph Schumpeter described the process by which institutions make progress and society advances through an often destructive process in which the status quo fights change and therefore needs to be destroyed.
Not dissimilar to what scientist Max Planck observed at the dawn of the new and revolutionary physics that would forever change our world, an observation often paraphrased as “science advances one funeral at a time.”
Protecting institutions from necessary change does no one any good. Ever wonder why the Department of Motor Vehicles or any social security office can feel like they belong in Dante’s middle circles?
Time to destroy the parts of this education system that deserve to be destroyed.
@DadTwoGirls - it is commonly known by Econ majors but you are correct , I doubt it is widely known. There were many colleges not doing well 12 months ago and this pandemic will cause some to speed up their closing shop. Maybe without this they could have limped along a few more years maybe until 2026 IIRC is when the collage age kids take a pretty big drop. The fact is the US has far to many colleges and some are not gonna make it, I think the surprising thing will be there will be some on that list that will surprise people.
The US is definitely far too over-colleged. Almost 3K institutions offering a 4-year degree. In Australia (which has 1/13th the population), there are 42, and that include a tiny CMU outpost and a for-profit.