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
