HIGHER EDUCATION COSTS

Increasing Costs of Higher Education

Increasing Costs of Higher Education

Introduction

A major reason behind the increasing cost of higher education lies in the fact that the cost of provision of education has increased. Higher education has reached a position in society where it is now regarded nothing less than a service that is supplied in relation to demand (Altbach, Berdahl & Gumport, 2009; Arum & Roksa, 2011). To be more specific, it is now a commodity. Higher education is one of the sectors of the U.S. economy where costs have skyrocketed in recent decades. The cost of a year of doctoral training at Northwestern University at a private institution was $795 in 1958; which is equivalent to two months average salary. The same training in 1998 costs more than $22,392; which is equivalent to almost half the average annual gross salary. Although less dramatic, rise in costs in the U.S. public universities over the last fifteen years has been over 195% - while the index of cost of living in the same period increased by only 63% (Bates & Poole, 2003; Bloom, 2007). The problem is that massive government intervention in recent years has completely changed the dynamics of American higher education. The workload of teachers has been reduced dramatically in order to enable them to do more research.

The increase in non-teaching staff (whether to administer affirmative action programs or other government requirements), has also been considerable. The proportion of teachers in American universities today is less than 35% of the salaried staff (Featherman, Hall & Krislov, 2010; Garrison & Vaughan, 2008). The federal government may increase subsidies, because the current ones are not sufficient to compensate for the reduction of the workload. The massive public intervention in recent years has completely changed the dynamics of American universities. Moreover, the situation of temporary employment for students outside educational institutions is not so bad; even in a relatively less economically well-off state like Montana. We must also take into account the availability of grants distributed by some important foundations, churches and other charities.

Discussion & Analyses

Access to higher education is an element that can be considered to be the product of the relation between four fundamental variables: the education system, the type of political organization, the type of economic organization and ideology or principles dominant on the social distribution of opportunities (Hacker & Dreifus, 2010; Merriam, 2008). This set of criteria may be operative in a practical approach where the accession of higher education is based on principles. In other words, the increase in enrollment demands similarly increased access to higher education. Regarding the issue of access to higher education, some might be tempted to see (in these social practices of self-analysis a consensual exercise), a way to create relationship types that comply with the concept of alter ego. They were basically used only for the purpose of imposing and make normative principles - that can then be reintroduced into the debate (in defense of specific ...