Universities and colleges are facing an existential crisis. Martin Regg Cohn writes:
This week, McGill University and UBC announced classes will be held online this fall. Ontario campuses have so far hedged their bets, keen to avoid deterring students or revealing just how fragile their finances may be.
Will online education be the wave of the future? If it is, it will change the cost structures of post-secondary education:
If classes shift to long-distance learning, what’s a fair short-term tuition discount for a virtual experience? If athletic facilities are closed and extracurricular activities cancelled, will student fees be reimbursed? (Universities are still smarting after being blindsided by a government-imposed tuition cut of 10 per cent last year, and the dismantling of mandatory student fees.)
Will international students keep coming? What if they can’t find flights, or secure student visas — or get their money’s worth? Will they still pay far higher foreign tuition fees to learn from far away? If they stay away, how will colleges and universities that depend heavily on foreign revenues make up massive shortfalls?
Online learning may well be the future, but today’s tuition is based on a rigid cost structure built of bricks and mortar, erected on a foundation of tenured professors and fancy gyms. Students don’t need a PhD in economics to understand price points, and may yet rebel over a bait and switch approach to in-class versus online learning.
There is much more to a university or college education than its cost. But, as with everything else, the pandemic is turning the world on its head.
Image: Macleans
10 comments:
It's been years since universities were built on a foundation of tenured professors. Profs these days are part of the precariat - on short-term, often part-time, contracts without benefits. They move from school to school hoping for a full-time permanent position. Very few make it to tenure compared to when I went to school. The real power and money goes to administrators who command enormous salaries mostly for their skill in fundraising.
Places like U of T couldn't keep the doors open without a huge continent of foreign students paying about ten times the domestic rate for tuition. But if unis move entirely to online courses, the value proposition for foreign students changes drastically, especially in courses with a hands-on or performance component in art, science, engineering, medicine, dentistry, and so on. And you can be sure any reduction in tuition won't be made up by governments or come out of the salaries of administrators. Look for more private sector meddling in university courses and curricula.
Cap
You're right about the precarious position of professors, Cap. My two eldest sons know a few of them. They call themselves "travelling scholars." And you're right, too, that the private sector will seek to gain a foothold in the academy.
For any educators/educated folks on a sunny, rainy, or snowy long weekend in May Monday, have a read of an article titled "lesser known privileges of academic rank" for some well-placed humour. I found it in 2 of my regular blogs that I enjoy reading: The Gazetteer and mcsweeneys (hope its okay for me to include these, Owen???
Absolutely, Lulymay. Thanks for the link. Let's see if we get further comments.
Everywhere else they're blaming high wages and salaries. So if the professors and teaching assistants are being underpaid, it must be the janitors and parking attendants that are scooting off with massive overcompensation. Are there still any union bosses involved anywhere in this process? Maybe it's the computers.
Tenured professors earn good salaries, John. But, the last time I checked, they are less than fifty percent of the teaching staff. The rest are "adjunct professors." They go from semester to semester. You don't have a lot of bargaining power when you can be gone after four months of employment.
.. Watch this 'file' very carefully Owen.. 'EDUCATION' was seen as low hanging fruit by Stepford Harper & the pro-carbon fruitcake brigade.. Those students are seen as future voters, taxpayers, Party donors.. (or worse.. 'losers' that require 'grooming' & manipulation lest they actually vote) Letting a Lecce or Kenney get their fingerprints on curriculum & delivery will be fatal. This reality is easily spotted in Alberta.. where Bitumen $ were directed at Primary Levels.. also seen in the USA.. in all educational levels.. $$ 'talks' - knowlege walks.. Anyone foolish enuff to not see how Harper Inc went after 'seeding' the courts.. should be force fed.. how EDUCATION is seen as ripe territory for idelogical warfare.. Uh oh.. here cometh Jason Kenney - self designated smartest guy on the prairie saviour of EDUCATION & MEDICINE.. intent on saving all of us from .. uh.. Well.. something or other boogymans .. Uh oh, here cometh noted 'educator' Lecce.. same pitch, same song.. drone on..
Kenny dropped out of university after his first year, sal. Ditto Mike Harris, although he did return to teachers college and lasted three years in the profession. These are not the people who should chart the future course of education.
They go from semester to semester. You don't have a lot of bargaining power when you can be gone after four months of employment.
Good reason to have a union. Even if an individual only has a 4 month contract n established legal structure can provide continuity and bargaining power.
At hde moment, sessional lecturers/adjunct professors and amazon workers have a lot of similarities.
Absolutely a good reason jrk. But when you're travelling from one institution to another, it's hard to find the time to organize.
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