Covid-19 Response: Evidence of How Higher Ed Can Be Completely Restructured?

[apl68]

How to put things in perspective:

Here we are, collectively adrift on an ocean of chaos, transformation and trauma -- and in a vessel that was never equipped to navigate it. We are holding on tightly to a set of academic expectations designed for dry land: expectations that have their origins in the capitalist, white supremacist, patriarchal, settler-colonialist, ableist structures that are (finally, necessarily) beginning to collapse around us.

And here we thought we were trying to educate people to give them more opportunities in life........

Though I've chided other posters elsewhere for their relentless carping about political correctness and "woke" behavior--and I still think that griping about it all the time is counterproductive--I can't blame them at all for being annoyed at stuff like this.  What an insufferably sanctimonious and superior attitude this expresses!  All the more annoying to find a paragraph like this dropped into what's actually a pretty thoughtful and interesting article overall.  The author just had to insert that distraction on general principle, like Cato working Carthago delenda est into every speech.

[Hibush]

The pandemic is restructuring higher ed to increase the existing disparities not just by speeding the race to the bottom, but also by also pushing high end higher.

Today we have an IHE article on the action at three schools (Yale, Caltech and Stanford) that benefited from the strong stock market performance, but did not suffer revenue loss (tuition and research grants). Their administrations are taking the opportunity to make targeted hires of opportunity (i.e. poach) to make their faculty better. Their faculty are encouraging them to hire even more aggressively.

Now, Yale didn't get off unscathed by any means. Their operating budget took a quarter-billion dollar hit. That would be considered a significant financial problem at any other school. This kind of resilience to severe short-term problems sets them apart.

[dismalist]

Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all.

Ecclesiastes 9:11

[spork]

This is supposed to be satirical, but it's accurate for many colleges and universities:

https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2021/01/29/satiric-look-how-faculty-and-administrators-can-realize-failure-grand-scale-opinion.

[marshwiggle]

This is supposed to be satirical, but it's accurate for many colleges and universities:

https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2021/01/29/satiric-look-how-faculty-and-administrators-can-realize-failure-grand-scale-opinion.

Several points from the article that are worth noting:

Faculty members should foil all attempts to discuss the complexities of operating a university, especially during a pandemic. Instead, they should continue to insist that financial issues are simply a matter of reallocating resources away from administrative activities and toward teaching efforts.

Faculty members should stay on message that the corporate mentality prohibits administrators from caring about people -- or, even better yet, incentivizes them not to care. After all, administrators fail to respect or recognize the true purpose of a university, which is to provide a liberal arts education.

Faculty members should remain committed to a single message: cut administration, cut everywhere except instruction and put that money toward teaching.

The faculty should insist that budget realities -- the need to balance revenues and expenses -- are irrelevant to the future of a great university. All that matters is that we continue to provide a great liberal arts education and are permitted to conduct our scholarship without impediment and with abundant resources.

I'd say all of those sentiments seem to be expressed fairly regularly here.

[apl68]

This is supposed to be satirical, but it's accurate for many colleges and universities:

https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2021/01/29/satiric-look-how-faculty-and-administrators-can-realize-failure-grand-scale-opinion.

Several points from the article that are worth noting:

Faculty members should foil all attempts to discuss the complexities of operating a university, especially during a pandemic. Instead, they should continue to insist that financial issues are simply a matter of reallocating resources away from administrative activities and toward teaching efforts.

Faculty members should stay on message that the corporate mentality prohibits administrators from caring about people -- or, even better yet, incentivizes them not to care. After all, administrators fail to respect or recognize the true purpose of a university, which is to provide a liberal arts education.

Faculty members should remain committed to a single message: cut administration, cut everywhere except instruction and put that money toward teaching.

The faculty should insist that budget realities -- the need to balance revenues and expenses -- are irrelevant to the future of a great university. All that matters is that we continue to provide a great liberal arts education and are permitted to conduct our scholarship without impediment and with abundant resources.

I'd say all of those sentiments seem to be expressed fairly regularly here.

That seems like an unfair accusation.  I can think of few, if any, Fora regulars who don't accept a need for serious adaptation.  There is disagreement over what that adaptation might look like.

Quite a few Fora members speak of having witnessed attitudes like those described in the article.  They haven't been endorsing them.

[spork]

Stephen Mintz makes another faulty argument:

https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/higher-ed-gamma/career-aligned-major-isn%E2%80%99t-enough.

[Hibush]

Stephen Mintz makes another faulty argument:

https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/higher-ed-gamma/career-aligned-major-isn%E2%80%99t-enough.

Mintz makes two statements, with the implication that A follows from B

A: postgraduation success requires a demanding liberal arts curriculum.
B: a bachelor's degree in a high demand field is not a golden ticket to career success.

It is easy for A to be false even when B is true. Shouldn't all critical thinkers see that in the first few lines of the article and stop reading?

[spork]

U.S. higher ed lost 650,000 jobs in 2020:

https://www.chronicle.com/article/a-brutal-tally-higher-ed-lost-650-000-jobs-last-year.

[marshwiggle]

U.S. higher ed lost 650,000 jobs in 2020:

https://www.chronicle.com/article/a-brutal-tally-higher-ed-lost-650-000-jobs-last-year.

From the article:

A Washington Post report and analysis last fall found that "the lowest-paid workers in higher education are bearing the brunt of the layoffs, mirroring broader trends of the most unequal recession in modern U.S. history."

The layoffs were highest among administrative support. Many of those kinds of functions would have been done by faculty, such as academic advising, practicum supervision, certain admissions roles, etc.

As with any business, when money gets tight, it's necessary to return to the core focus of the business, which in this case, is  educating students.

[Mobius]

I wish colleges focused on resilience and being proactive. I know everyone's situation is different and most students probably have a rougher time than me right now. These are the soft skills that get brushed aside by people meaning well in advocating for a host of student support services that don't do much to help if students don't seem invested in their own educations.

[apl68]

A recent survey indicates that students are not at all happy about the online education they've been getting during the Plague Year:

Ninety-four percent of college students surveyed believe online classes should cost less than in-person instruction, according to a new report from Barnes & Noble Education. The report is based on responses from 1,438 students and provides an outlook on the future of higher education following the coronavirus pandemic. Nearly half of the students surveyed also said that the value of college has declined as a result of the pandemic.

Barnes & Noble Insights, the company's research arm, also surveyed 323 faculty members and 104 administrators from November to December of 2020 and found that students are more likely than these personnel to question the cost of college, a press release about the report said. While nearly all the students surveyed said the cost of online classes should be reduced, only 43 percent of administrators and 41 percent of faculty members believed it should be, according to the report.

https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2021/03/01/report-students-think-value-college-declined


Results like this suggest that students by and large consider online education a second-rate substitute, justifiable only if it comes with a cut in price.  I recall suspecting, when the big emergency rush to online took place a year ago, that this was likely to turn students and the public against online education.  Which doesn't mean that policymakers and such aren't going to force more and more of them into online education in the long run in the name of "cutting costs" or "efficiency" anyway.

[marshwiggle]

A recent survey indicates that students are not at all happy about the online education they've been getting during the Plague Year:

Ninety-four percent of college students surveyed believe online classes should cost less than in-person instruction, according to a new report from Barnes & Noble Education.

https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2021/03/01/report-students-think-value-college-declined

Results like this suggest that students by and large consider online education a second-rate substitute, justifiable only if it comes with a cut in price.  I recall suspecting, when the big emergency rush to online took place a year ago, that this was likely to turn students and the public against online education.  Which doesn't mean that policymakers and such aren't going to force more and more of them into online education in the long run in the name of "cutting costs" or "efficiency" anyway.

It would have been interesting if they'd asked what proportion of value it had relative to face to face; 80%? 60%?
Theoretically, if the tuition were reduced by the right proportion, students would be satisfied with the experience.

[dismalist]

It would have been interesting if they'd asked what proportion of value it had relative to face to face; 80%? 60%?
Theoretically, if the tuition were reduced by the right proportion, students would be satisfied with the experience.

Yes, that's what matters.

Here https://www.nber.org/papers/w28511#fromrss is some evidence and analysis that claims students would be willing to pay only 4% more for on-site classes than on-line classes  -- holding everything else constant.

This suggests that many students find on-line instruction to be a reasonable substitute for on-site instruction.

Students would pay 8% more for on-site amenities.

I find those numbers surprisingly small, but they do vary a lot across students.

[marshwiggle]

https://www.nber.org/papers/w28511#fromrss is some evidence and analysis that claims students would be willing to pay only 4% more for on-site classes than on-line classes  -- holding everything else constant.

This suggests that many students find on-line instruction to be a reasonable substitute for on-site instruction.

Students would pay 8% more for on-site amenities.

I find those numbers surprisingly small, but they do vary a lot across students.

Here's one bombshell from the report, in my opinion:

For example, the WTP* is correlated with students' previous experience
with online education; those who took an average of one online class per semester pre-pandemic have, on
average, a $676 lower WTP for in-person instruction.

Now that covid has given all students exposure to lots of online classes, this suggests the WTP for in-person instruction may now be quite a bit lower across-the-board.


*"Willingness To Pay"