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Quite. Furthermore... From the article: "Consider this: You have just paid about three times as much for your degree as did someone graduating 30 years ago. T

by chalst 13y ago

Quite. Furthermore... From the article: "Consider this: You have just paid about three times as much for your degree as did someone graduating 30 years ago. That’s in constant dollars — in other words, after accounting for inflation. There is no evidence that you have received a degree three times as good. " The assumption is that you would expect the cost of higher education to track the CPI. As a good that we get through labour-intensive means, in fact you should not expect that, but expect the cost to depend on the amount of face-to-face time students have with instructors and the growth of real wages. I thought the WSJ was supposed to get these kind of things right.

jimhefferon 13y ago
> expect the cost to depend on the amount of face-to-face time students have with instructors and the growth of real wages I'm a college professor. I don't believe that the amount of face-to-face time has increased (I'd be interested to hear otherwise). Is there evidence that real wages have increased for people who teach? (I haven't gotten a raise in some years, and I hear all about increases in adjuncts which would tend to drive down average pay.)
- chalst 13y ago
  I think the labour cost of university teaching has increased in the US: 1. I think (I haven't tried to dredge up numbers) that in the US, face-to-face time with professors has reduced for each student on average, but face-to-face time with more junior academic staff has increased greatly. To make a comparison between countries, rather than across time, certainly the number of supervised teaching hours per week I have seen in US universities has been much higher than even in the highest-rated universities in the UK and Germany. 2. The labour costs are not just in-class teaching time, but also all work that is attached to teaching activity. Much more effort is put into "compliance" issues than before (e.g., dealing with legal challenges to grades, and I think that admissions is a much more expensive process than before). 3. The most sought-after faculty (star professors) do earn much more than before, and for at least some faculties, the pay for star professors is proportionally high. 4. Faculty turnover is higher. I'm sure concrete figures exist - I'd certainly like to see a solid analysis of labour cost trends in the US and elsewhere.
greghinch 13y ago
> I thought the WSJ was supposed to get these kind of things right Not since NewsCorp took the reigns

by chalst 13y ago

jimhefferon 13y ago

> expect the cost to depend on the amount of face-to-face time students have with instructors and the growth of real wages I'm a college professor. I don't believe that the amount of face-to-face time has increased (I'd be interested to hear otherwise). Is there evidence that real wages have increased for people who teach? (I haven't gotten a raise in some years, and I hear all about increases in adjuncts which would tend to drive down average pay.)

chalst 13y ago
I think the labour cost of university teaching has increased in the US: 1. I think (I haven't tried to dredge up numbers) that in the US, face-to-face time with professors has reduced for each student on average, but face-to-face time with more junior academic staff has increased greatly. To make a comparison between countries, rather than across time, certainly the number of supervised teaching hours per week I have seen in US universities has been much higher than even in the highest-rated universities in the UK and Germany. 2. The labour costs are not just in-class teaching time, but also all work that is attached to teaching activity. Much more effort is put into "compliance" issues than before (e.g., dealing with legal challenges to grades, and I think that admissions is a much more expensive process than before). 3. The most sought-after faculty (star professors) do earn much more than before, and for at least some faculties, the pay for star professors is proportionally high. 4. Faculty turnover is higher. I'm sure concrete figures exist - I'd certainly like to see a solid analysis of labour cost trends in the US and elsewhere.

greghinch 13y ago

> I thought the WSJ was supposed to get these kind of things right Not since NewsCorp took the reigns