Sunday 28 June 2015

The Economist - is college worth it?

This 2014 article from the Economist may perpetuate the idea that there are too many university graduates and that the degree they earned has not resulted in higher earning power. However, it is somewhat more nuanced than that. It does state that many university graduates do have higher earning power than those who have only a high school degree, but that the earning power depends upon the degree earned - degrees in engineering, for example, seem to produce greater earning power than degrees in the arts & humanities. One thing this article is spot on about is the rising cost of a post-secondary education and how that can limit access to education.

It troubles me that the Economist repeats the idea that online education is going to decrease the cost of higher education. That simply is not true. People who think that online education is cheaper than face-to-face education do not understand that knowledge is constantly changing requiring constant maintenance of courses - whether they be online or F2F. In addition, to do online learning properly, requires a large investment of resources to prepare the online materials. The idea that the talking head of an expert will be sufficient is ludicrous.

Resource

Editors. 2014, April 5. Is college worth it? The Economist.