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The message from Tallahassee could not be blunter: Give us engineers, scientists, health care specialists and technology experts. Do not worry so much about historians, philosophers, anthropologists and English majors. </p>
<p>To nudge students toward job-friendly degrees, the governor’s task force on higher education suggested recently that university tuition rates be frozen for three years for majors in “strategic areas,” which would vary depending on supply and demand.
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Mr. Scott wants the state’s 28 colleges (formerly called community colleges) to offer some of their four-year degrees for $10,000.
<p>Do you think this is a bad thing? Sending students into the job market is a definite plus and making them tax paying citizens is a plus. Not a whole lot different than offering merit scholarships or incentive pay in the corporate world.</p>
<p>No different than other institutions targeting certain students or majors. I recall many grants for male education majors in Sci and Math. Also a admissions preference for men in the nursing field.</p>
<p>Admissions preferences, scholarships,“lower tuition” – seems rather commonplace IMHO</p>
<p>I have heard of situations where hospital staff would look for the male nurses for their presumed greater physical strength when moving immobile patients, particularly heavy ones.</p>
<p>However, it would seem more optimal to just seek out nurses with good physical strength to the extent needed for the job, since being female does not automatically prevent someone from gaining the physical strength desired in this context.</p>
<p>Recently moved to Florida. Have read the local newspapers on this. Poor idea. The U’s need more money to maintain any semblance of a quality education. Cut too many corners and a degraded education results. Much too business oriented at the expense of education attitude. btw- where are the resources to train those in demand majors? Limits usually due to available teaching staff in majors such as nursing. Churning out degrees that maintain high standards or …</p>
<p>I’d like to see RN’s weigh in on the strength issue. As a physician I know RN’s too often do things they should have help from aids with because “the buck stops here” and they do what it takes to give good patient care. But brains, not brawn, make a good RN. Too much understaffing means RN’s do a lot that their expertise isn’t needed for and ancillary personnel should help with.</p>
<p>There is, of course, the risk that the in-demand jobs now become less in-demand four years from now, or that incorrect assumptions about what jobs are most in-demand are used.</p>
<p>If they really want to do that, it may be better to implement the discounts as “scholarships” rather than a different tuition schedule, as there is some expectation that “scholarships” are more likely to change the next year.</p>
<p>Wonder what happens if a student who receives a discount for majoring initially in a “strategic” discipline then changes major to a non-strategic one. Do they have to pay back the difference?</p>
<p>Or what of kids who double-major? Do they pay different amounts for the different majors? There are a lot of kids who start in STEM but don’t graduate in that field. What about those who start out in one of the less preferred majors & transfer into STEM–do they get a refund?</p>
<p>I agree that perhaps it would be easier if there were scholarships for STEM instead of tuition differentials. At our kid’s private U, some students got extra scholarships from the particular school they majored in–engineering gave out quite a lot of scholarship money.</p>
<p>Regarding “STEM majors” – note that biology is the most popular STEM major, and seems to have mediocre to poor job prospects no matter what part of the economic cycle the economy is in. So it should not be a candidate for the kind of incentive proposed in Florida, although it would not be surprising if politicians fail to see the distinction between different STEM majors in labor market demand.</p>
<p>I don’t think lowering tuition on STEM majors would magically make more people want to study STEM subjects. It would make a lot more sense to simply instill some awareness in the students about life after college. so they understand what they’re getting themselves into, and not have to come back to school when the economy tanks again.</p>
<p>spectastic–it might entice people from other states to consider programs in FL though and with a high number of students staying near where they go to college to work, it will be a bonus for employers. Look how many people now apply to Alabama because of their full rides for NMSF’s (although they changed that this year but still…). Our kids got a “diversity” scholarship for coming from a state that isn’t represented at the school DD is attending and DS might attend. Not really any different.</p>
<p>I like that they are having the 10,000 dollar degrees. I think this is really excellent and something a lot of states could do.</p>
<p>College degrees have become too expensive, imho, and it is good to have low cost options for those who can’t or don’t want to spend that much money.</p>
<p>I am wary of the government trying to pick winners. A better way to encourage students to pursue majors that will help them get jobs is to reduce government lending for higher education and let the gap be filled by private lenders who are free to charge students interest rates that depend on their academic record, college major, and college attended. If anthropologists are less employable than engineers, they will be charged higher interest rates, which will encourage them to change majors.</p>
<p>Well, because that is what they are offering. Also, most Community Colleges don’t have unions, for one thing.</p>
<p>As for your post #16. It is completely ridiculous to have outside banks imposing these things on public community college students. Or, if not ridiculous, no more valid a tool than using the colleges the way they were designed to be used.</p>
<p>Why do you think we have community colleges in this country?</p>
<p>Public universities should be working on expanding their enrollment capacity for the more marketable fields. Many interested students are turned away from these fields because of a shortage of seats.</p>
<p>It does seem like a better idea to offer additional state scholarships to certain fields, rather than limit tuition. As was pointed out, U Alabama does this.</p>
<p>Seems more flexible though the net cost is the same.</p>