“I Just Got Accepted to the University of Zoom!” — Said No College Student Ever (Until Now)
I doubt any college student has uttered that phrase above — “I just got accepted to the University of Zoom.” In a way, it is meant to be humorous. On the other hand, there is truth to the statement.
The goal is not to make light of a serious situation. Students, faculty, parents, and many others are struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic and there currently isn’t a clear end in sight. Colleges are losing the funds they use to provide education, experiencing declining enrollment, receiving pressure to lower tuition, and even cutting sports programs.
At the same time, the value that college brings has never been missed more than it is now. Social interaction, sporting events, clubs, networking, and many other aspects of college are significantly inhibited by the current health crisis caused by COVID-19. Millions of learners across the United States are experiencing a drastic change to the college experience they signed up for. If that wasn’t hard enough, frustrations are boiling over because they are paying the same price for much less value.
Tuition for in-person classes (think college in 2019) and “Zoom University” (from your childhood bedroom) are largely the same!
I read a recent article highlighting how “Covid-19 has led many to question the cost of attending college and highlights the fact that higher education institutions are businesses.” It is true — institutions of higher education are businesses — and all should know that without money coming in colleges will struggle.
Now, college is a great decision for many learners. It provides access to content and information, professors and faculty, other students, different viewpoints, and other valuable resources. One student, who was quoted in the article above, shared that her tuition pays for a lot of the resources but because of online learning, she doesn’t have the ability to use those resources.
“There’s a lot of on-campus resources that we pay for via tuition that we now don’t have access to. Like the fitness center, the library — the computers in the library have a lot of programs that students can’t access otherwise,” said Marzella, who wrote a petition to her school over the summer to reduce tuition. “These are all things that students are still being asked to pay for and not being able to access.”
That article also includes some information on the average cost of college and what the current student loan debt picture looks like.
The average cost of attending a four-year public college in the 2017–2018 school year was $20,050. The average tuition at private institutions was over twice that at $43,139. Slow increases in the cost of college have been the norm for decades, and with that, about 44 million Americans collectively owe student debt worth $1.6tn.
This is a dilemma that has plagued students for decades. The cost of college continues to rise…
I attended college and am grateful for the experience. It was an avenue for many rewarding and fruitful relationships and it opened doors for my professional career. With that being said, would I recommend attending college to someone today? Well, I think the answer would depend on several factors. To be totally honest, college is not the same when it is completely online. There are other more cost-effective options for online learning.
This pandemic can certainly be classified as “unfair” for many reasons and universities (much like learners) do not deserve to be in such a difficult position. However, change is inevitable. Universities, as well as learners, need to adapt and evolve to succeed given the current circumstances. They will also need to be prepared to handle the future of work, whatever that may look like.
As stated below, this might just be the beginning of financial problems for universities. If “Zoom University” costs the same as the college experience you originally had in mind then I am sure the snippet below is not very comforting…
“There are going to be colleges that, if they wish to survive, don’t have any option but to charge higher prices,” said Kevin McClure, a professor of higher education at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. “If this follows the course of past recessions, we’ll see college affordability and student debt getting worse.”
— Quote from ‘Zoom University’ article cited above
Are you concerned about the cost of college? If so, check out www.learnwithedifi.com to learn about other options and get unbiased academic advice.
