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At least in the US, skyrocketing college costs aren't really due to excess demand. They are a side effect of the torrent of student loan money that the schools

At least in the US, skyrocketing college costs aren't really due to excess demand. They are a side effect of the torrent of student loan money that the schools have captured over the last 20-30 years. The lenders and the schools worked hand-in-hand to ratchet up the price tags and the size of the loans for college educations. All their incentives were to go up up up! The additional revenue to the schools didn't go to a better education, of course ... it largely went to administrative salaries. The administrative budget at US colleges has grown unbelievably while the instructional budget per-capita has been flat, driven down by the "adjunctification" of teaching staff.

solarmist 4y ago
Yup, 100% true. But they can both be true. I mean it in the way that many people who might never have gone to college are now expected to do to not have a minimum-wage job forever.
medvezhenok 4y ago
I'm pretty sure there was also a corresponding decrease in public funding for universities; to where most of the cost of the universities used to be borne by the state (and paid via taxes), but are now privatized. Increasing loans are only part of the issue (and likely exist to offset the pullback in public university funding) https://www.amacad.org/publication/public-research-universities-changes-state-funding/section/3 https://www.amacad.org/publication/public-research-universit...
sul_tasto 4y ago
Does anyone know of any studies on how the proliferation of MBA degrees has affected universities in this way, or other industries in similar ways? That is, the ballooning of administrative roles to the detriment of the student/consumer and core employees who produce the real value for a company/university/etc? I thought I read somewhere in the last year about how the proliferation of MBA degrees result in the lowering of workers’ wages, but little other benefit…
- opyate 4y ago
  I vaguely remember the late David Graeber covering this in either his Bullshit Jobs book or blog.

solarmist 4y ago

Yup, 100% true. But they can both be true. I mean it in the way that many people who might never have gone to college are now expected to do to not have a minimum-wage job forever.

medvezhenok 4y ago

I'm pretty sure there was also a corresponding decrease in public funding for universities; to where most of the cost of the universities used to be borne by the state (and paid via taxes), but are now privatized. Increasing loans are only part of the issue (and likely exist to offset the pullback in public university funding) https://www.amacad.org/publication/public-research-universities-changes-state-funding/section/3 https://www.amacad.org/publication/public-research-universit...

sul_tasto 4y ago

Does anyone know of any studies on how the proliferation of MBA degrees has affected universities in this way, or other industries in similar ways? That is, the ballooning of administrative roles to the detriment of the student/consumer and core employees who produce the real value for a company/university/etc? I thought I read somewhere in the last year about how the proliferation of MBA degrees result in the lowering of workers’ wages, but little other benefit…

opyate 4y ago
I vaguely remember the late David Graeber covering this in either his Bullshit Jobs book or blog.