The New Value Around College Degrees
A couple of weeks ago, NYT published an article titled “In College Turmoil, Signs of a Changed Relationship With Students,” which highlights how colleges are providing value today.
What really struck out to me is this leisure pool at Texas Tech University. It reminded me of my college experience. They were pouring hundreds of millions in dollars in creating new gyms, dorms, fancy cafeterias, etc as a way to sell college students on new amenities.
Colleges have shifted from being an institution to learn to being a cool place to hang out. The NYT article says it best:
“Campus water parks — with pools, slides and man-made rivers — have become just common enough that when Louisiana State University recently plotted its own, it decided that the river should spell out the letters L.S.U., so that it was no mere mimic of all those other, lesser collegiate waterways.
We devote all these resources to creating, basically, country clubs with libraries. When families are asked to pay $60,000 or more a year, the transaction takes on a more bluntly commercial aspect.”
This has shifted education into a transactional learning model. In turn, all of the money that is invested into these man-made rivers take away from money that can be invested into education.
I believe that this is tied to a bigger trend around the value of a college degree. If it doesn’t lead to jobs (as promised in the earlier decades), then what value do students get for paying a $60,000 a year degree? That’s the big open question a lot of these colleges are trying to answer right now. I hope they figure it out.
