{"id":2585,"date":"2011-04-24T12:11:39","date_gmt":"2011-04-24T18:11:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2585"},"modified":"2011-04-24T13:36:00","modified_gmt":"2011-04-24T19:36:00","slug":"the-higher-ed-bubble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2585","title":{"rendered":"The Higher-Ed Bubble"},"content":{"rendered":"

Talk of the “higher-education bubble<\/a>” seems to be increasing. This short article from a North Carolina-based think tank\u00a0 pretty well sums it up:<\/a><\/p>\n

Like the nation\u2019s housing bubble, which eventually burst, the college bubble is caused by a number of factors. But the biggest force is, as my colleague George Leef has often pointed out, the overselling of higher education. The housing bubble was created, at least in part, by the conviction that everyone ought to own a home; the college bubble is occurring because so many peoplebelieve that everyone ought to attend college.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s depressing because so many people whom I know are employed in higher education, want to be so employed, or are connected with it, such as through academic publishing.<\/p>\n

Speaking of the United States, what is the figure for entering freshmen who actually complete a bachelor’s degree in a generous six years? Under 50 percent, right?<\/p>\n

Yet every high-school guidance counselor tells kids that even if they take on a pile of debt to get a degree, they will earn it all back and more. Not always true.<\/p>\n

I don’t think making university education dramatically cheaper is the answer either. Some countries do — and then they end up with large numbers of young people who are now “above” working with their hands.<\/p>\n

So they get jobs in bloated government bureaucracies, sit around drinking tea and soliciting bribes — or they emigrate.<\/p>\n

(I’ve heard enough horror stories from the international students, of whom my university has quite a few.)<\/p>\n

After decades of growth, starting post-World War Two when university education was subsidized for returning servicemen<\/a>, then when the Baby Boom went to college (1960s-1970s), and then the “bubble” years following those,\u00a0 it is really hard to think that higher education might be contracting.<\/p>\n

But it might. And we have to have some response to that, right?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Talk of the “higher-education bubble” seems to be increasing. This short article from a North Carolina-based think tank\u00a0 pretty well sums it up: Like the nation\u2019s housing bubble, which eventually burst, the college bubble is caused by a number of factors. But the biggest force is, as my colleague George Leef has often pointed out, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[137,83],"class_list":["post-2585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-academia","tag-education"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-FH","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3036,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3036","url_meta":{"origin":2585,"position":0},"title":"“Higher Ed Bubble” Goes Mainstream","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 11, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Another article on the \"higher education bubble\" (think housing bubble, but with college degrees) from that screaming right-wing rag The Christian Science Monitor. (That was meant as sarcasm.) A college degree once looked to be the path to prosperity. In an article for TechCrunch, Sarah Lacy writes, \"Like the housing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"education\"","block_context":{"text":"education","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=education"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2283,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2283","url_meta":{"origin":2585,"position":1},"title":"‘Academically Adrift’","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 18, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"It is probably no surprise to a lot of us in higher education that \"45 percent of students show no significant improvement in the key measures of critical thinking, complex reasoning and writing by the end of their sophomore years.\" (Lest I be accused of America-bashing, in talking with international\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"education\"","block_context":{"text":"education","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=education"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4220,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4220","url_meta":{"origin":2585,"position":2},"title":"The Potential Strength of a Liberal Arts Degree","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 17, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I have written here before about the Higher Education Bubble. Related to that perception, you hear a lot of people devaluing education in the humanities and arts. High-profile news stories about graduates with degrees in, for example, film studies and a big debt load did not help. But here is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"education\"","block_context":{"text":"education","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=education"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":296,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=296","url_meta":{"origin":2585,"position":3},"title":"Can you be a Druid\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 30, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Can you be a Druid and an Episcopalian? The controversy over \"Pagan\" elements on an official Episcopal Church Web site and the husband-and-wife clergy connected with them continues to bubble. Christianity Today's blog has their bishop's statement: the situation is \"extremely serious,\" but there is no rush to the stake,\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1153,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1153","url_meta":{"origin":2585,"position":4},"title":"Concentration and Its Enemies — II","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 8, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I blogged recently on concentrating on one's work in an online world ... wait, I have to check some blogs ... OK, I'm back.At John Tierney's blog the discussion continues. All sorts of perspectives:Fortunately, I am able to focus, but one of the reasons is because I have schizophrenia, although\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"writing\"","block_context":{"text":"writing","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=writing"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1303,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1303","url_meta":{"origin":2585,"position":5},"title":"Don’t Visualize, Organize!","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 5, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"That is the takeaway message from Barbara Ehrenreich's new book Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America.Like much of Ehrenreich's writing, it is fueled by righteous anger.First, as a breast cancer patient, she is disgusted by the happy-face positive thinking of what she calls \"pink ribbon\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=chascli-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0805087494","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2585"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2593,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2585\/revisions\/2593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}