Back to one of my favorite themes: the higher education bubble. A majority of Americans (57%) say the higher education system in the United States fails to provide students with good value for the money, according to a new opinion survey by the Pew Research Center. An even larger majority (75%) says college is too expensive for most Americans to afford.
Not surprisingly, the public’s views diverge from that of university presidents, six out of 10 of whom say the system of higher education is headed in the right direction. (Actually, a remarkable 38% say it is heading in the wrong direction.)
If colleges deliver less value these days, it may be because, as 58% of college presidents believe, public high school students arrive at college less well prepared than their counterparts of a decade ago. Another 52% of presidents say college students today study less than their predecessors did a decade ago.
Sad to say, both the public and the college presidents are probably right. Students are less prepared when they get to college and don’t work as hard when they get there — and they’re getting less value for their money.
As if the survey couldn’t get any more depressing, the public is evenly divided between those who believe that students and their families should pay the largest share of the cost of a college education and those who think that the bulk of the cost should be borne by federal government, state government, private endowments or some combination of all three. I can’t help wondering if there’s an overlap between the students who study less and those who think someone else should pay for their education.