3 ms·

A university degree no longer confers financial security

13 points by martincmartin 15y ago

cletus 15y ago
At the same time there is a definite "education bubble" going on, somewhat counterintuitively, with the spiraling cost of education [1]. The reasons for this seem to be complex, including the availability of student loans, the increasing importance of college rankings allowing higher ranked institutions to raise prices, losing money on athletics [2], arbitrary requirements and/or incentives for college degrees where none are technically required and so on. While we've pushed the notion that education is its own reward and colleges don't necessarily exist to teach you anything useful in the real world, it's becoming increasingly clear that prospective students are going to have to make their choice of whether to go to college and what degree to get from an economic standpoint, at least in part. One of the problems seem to be that for many professions colleges have a captive market where you can't practice in whatever field you've trained for without an internship or similar. In some fields demand greatly exceeds supply causing some internships to be sold [3]. To quote Kent Brockman [4], "Scott, things aren't as happy as they used to be down here at the unemployment office. Joblessness is no longer just for Philosophy majors - useful people are starting to feel the pinch." You also have (particularly left-wing) governments who treat college attendance as some kind of political goal, which is crazy. Having access to a college education is not the same thing as giving everyone a college education (whether they will benefit from it or not). The biggest problem I think is that most of the jobs of future don't exist yet [5]. It's unclear if, in the future, the population will be fully employed. I can't find a link but I do remember reading one economist's bleak prediction that in the future, with increasing automation, only 20% of the population will be required to produce the world's "stuff", the other 80% being much like the ship inhabitants in Wall-E. [1]: http://lifeinc.today.com/_news/2011/08/11/7349127-good-graph-friday-whats-rising-faster-than-health-care-college-costs http://lifeinc.today.com/_news/2011/08/11/7349127-good-graph... [2]: http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/college-athletics-losing-money/ http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/college-athletics-losing-mo... [3]: http://www.michigandaily.com/content/selling-internships-highest-bidder http://www.michigandaily.com/content/selling-internships-hig... [4]: http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0003026/quotes http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0003026/quotes [5]: http://www.forbes.com/2006/05/20/jobs-future-work_cx_hc_06work_0523jobs.html http://www.forbes.com/2006/05/20/jobs-future-work_cx_hc_06wo...
Volpe 15y ago
Personally, I think it's a good thing that completing university is no longer == to high paying job. Universities were created for a pursuit of knowledge. Not a highly pretentious certification system (Where some how your Havard degree is 'worth more' than my community college degree)... which generally boils down to "Well you have money, so you deserve more money". Skills get you a job, a degree will get you (some) skills.

13 points by martincmartin 15y ago

At the same time there is a definite "education bubble" going on, somewhat counterintuitively, with the spiraling cost of education [1]. The reasons for this seem to be complex, including the availability of student loans, the increasing importance of college rankings allowing higher ranked institutions to raise prices, losing money on athletics [2], arbitrary requirements and/or incentives for college degrees where none are technically required and so on. While we've pushed the notion that education is its own reward and colleges don't necessarily exist to teach you anything useful in the real world, it's becoming increasingly clear that prospective students are going to have to make their choice of whether to go to college and what degree to get from an economic standpoint, at least in part. One of the problems seem to be that for many professions colleges have a captive market where you can't practice in whatever field you've trained for without an internship or similar. In some fields demand greatly exceeds supply causing some internships to be sold [3]. To quote Kent Brockman [4], "Scott, things aren't as happy as they used to be down here at the unemployment office. Joblessness is no longer just for Philosophy majors - useful people are starting to feel the pinch." You also have (particularly left-wing) governments who treat college attendance as some kind of political goal, which is crazy. Having access to a college education is not the same thing as giving everyone a college education (whether they will benefit from it or not). The biggest problem I think is that most of the jobs of future don't exist yet [5]. It's unclear if, in the future, the population will be fully employed. I can't find a link but I do remember reading one economist's bleak prediction that in the future, with increasing automation, only 20% of the population will be required to produce the world's "stuff", the other 80% being much like the ship inhabitants in Wall-E. [1]: http://lifeinc.today.com/_news/2011/08/11/7349127-good-graph-friday-whats-rising-faster-than-health-care-college-costs http://lifeinc.today.com/_news/2011/08/11/7349127-good-graph... [2]: http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/college-athletics-losing-money/ http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/college-athletics-losing-mo... [3]: http://www.michigandaily.com/content/selling-internships-highest-bidder http://www.michigandaily.com/content/selling-internships-hig... [4]: http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0003026/quotes http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0003026/quotes [5]: http://www.forbes.com/2006/05/20/jobs-future-work_cx_hc_06work_0523jobs.html http://www.forbes.com/2006/05/20/jobs-future-work_cx_hc_06wo...

Volpe 15y ago

Personally, I think it's a good thing that completing university is no longer == to high paying job. Universities were created for a pursuit of knowledge. Not a highly pretentious certification system (Where some how your Havard degree is 'worth more' than my community college degree)... which generally boils down to "Well you have money, so you deserve more money". Skills get you a job, a degree will get you (some) skills.