Declines in enrollment are life-threatening for most universities, as tuition is the primary source of revenue for most universities. Edmit, a college planning tool for parents and high school seniors, examined financial trends at 937 private universities. The company conservatively estimated the Covid-19 impact as tuition losses of 10 percent in 2... See more
Mikal Khoso • Trajectory #17: The End of University Inc
The Wall Street Journal asked that question in April, and one student responded with this zinger: “Would you pay $75,000 for front-row seats to a Beyoncé concert and be satisfied with a livestream instead?” Another compared higher education to premium cable—an annoyingly expensive bundle with more options than most people need. “Give me the basic p... See more
Michael D. Smith • Are Universities Going the Way of CDs and Cable TV?
It’s not inconceivable that, in the next academic year, we will see a quarter of all public and private universities close their doors.
Alex Taussig • Drinking from the Firehose | Alex Taussig, Lightspeed | Substack
It used to be possible to work your way through college. Even at a state school, that would now be extremely difficult. There are, of course, student loans and some grants available, but borrowing to pay for college can leave the student financially crippled for years, making upward mobility an abstraction.
George Friedman • The Storm Before the Calm: America's Discord, the Coming Crisis of the 2020s, and the Triumph Beyond
Among educated Americans, however, I suspect there’s another factor at work: elite overproduction. In the 1990s and 2000s, smart young Americans were told that a college education was the ticket to a career that wasn’t just high-paying, but also deep, fulfilling, and meaningful. And even if that was true for the median college graduate, there were ... See more