Barry Dahl dot com

Here’s a new infographic  from OnlineCollege.org, via Edudemic: Connecting Education & Technology. I know that you can’t visit a website without getting slapped in the face by an infographic these days – well, now that includes Barry Dahl dot com.

I look forward to the first interactive infographic – you know, one that you can argue with.

• I take exception to their use of the USN&WR info about “Best Value” in colleges (section 4). This is so completely biased toward elite colleges and the rich people who can afford to go to them. You want real value? Try the University of Wyoming or BYU-Idaho. They are doing great things there at a much lower price tag. Just because US News says something,  doesn’t mean it’s true.
• I also don’t care for section 2 which shows the cost increases from 2000 to 2009. You want a dramatic chart? Show the increases from 1980 to 2009 and also show the rise in health care (about 70% of the rise in education) and the rise in general inflation (about 30% of the rise in education). That would be a chart worth looking at.

Via: Online College Experts

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This is the final post in the series of twelve. Unless I decide to keep going. All posts are categorized as $10K Degree.

I’ve probably gone too far. I might have had a useful nugget or two, but I’ve probably taken these ideas to an extreme point where almost everyone will say something like: “That’s crazy talk. It’ll never work.” Sigh.

Maybe my thinking has been influenced too much by living close to the Mall of America (MoA). Maybe my thoughts that public education should be done in public are just too weird for general consumption. Maybe it’s my thoughts that traditional faculty work belongs in traditional universities – and that new institutions need to reinvent what it means to be a faculty member. Maybe it’s my ideas around how college students (yes, lowly college students) can actually produce goods and services of value – and that they shouldn’t have to pay for the chance to do so. Maybe the agrarian academic calendar just doesn’t make sense in the world of today – but of course I must be wrong about that. Maybe a college just isn’t a college unless it has rooms with rows of seats and/or computers with the authority figure standing up front demanding attention, whether it is deserved or not. Maybe I’m just totally out to lunch. Maybe.

But here goes —– Welcome to the Mall of Education

The Mall of Education (MoE) is a real mall. (Sidebar: yes, I know that malls are the bane of our existence – that they are a blight on society – but maybe that’s because we’ve been using them wrong.) Rather than build elaborate classroom and office buildings for this new educational venture – we just take over one of the dying malls in this country. Or 100 of them.

What happens at the MoE? All kinds of things, many of which you just don’t see in traditional colleges and universities.

• The general public comes and goes at the MoE. They are welcome on “campus,” in fact they are needed for the college to survive and thrive. The general public can come to learn along with the students, to teach along with the faculty, and to seek and purchase real goods and services at the MoE. You want real, not artificially created, interaction? That’s what will happen every day at the MoE. This is a different twist on the concept of Open Education Resources or the Open University – this is Education in the Open.
• Let’s say that Billy Bob lives in the community where MoE is located. Billy comes to the MoE because he has heard that the web design students create real websites for real people and real businesses. Those students also maintain and improve the college website. Billy is starting a new business and he needs a website. He can’t pay thousands of dollars, but he can pay a few hundred dollars to have his site created by the students who work alongside the web design faculty member, who just so happens to be a real-deal web developer – who can also teach others how to do it. Billy Bob gets what he needs, the students get a real education in web design, and the community benefits in many ways.
• Similar to the web design students, the auto service students work in a real auto repair space (probably originally occupied by a Sears or Firestone store). Real people bring their cars to be fixed at the MoE. Students deal with the customers just like they’ll have to deal with customers out in the “real world.” In case you haven’t noticed, the MoE will be the real world.
• All students, regardless of degree program, will receive education related to providing superior customer service. Someday, somewhere, they’ll be in a position where that will be important. When it comes along, they’ll be ready. Yes, even the English students.
• What? English students? How in the world do English students fit into the concept of the MoE? Just like everybody else does. Since they won’t be getting jobs working in the English industry, they will experience many different jobs at the MoE. They’ll revise and improve the menus at the restaurant, they’ll engage in public literature readings for pre-school children. They’ll hold court in the MoE public spaces for their weekly Poetry Slam – where dozens of community people will come to listen and encourage and engage. I know that sounds crazy – but yes, public speaking will actually be done in public rather than in the controlled, private, traditional classroom environment. The English students will also work with the automotive and web design students (and others) who need to improve their language skills. Then they’ll graduate and be successful in whatever comes next.
• Students in health career fields will serve the public in community clinics similar to the way they do at Lake Superior College (see previous post).  People who are able to pay some fees will pay those fees to help support the MoE. Maybe health insurance can be used to help pay for the care received at the MoE. Maybe people with low income can afford $100 to get some dental care. The local dentists will hate it. They’ll cry bloody murder that the MoE is damaging their businesses. They’ll be wrong about that. Everyone will benefit from this arrangement. This same concept can be applied to many, if not all, of the  health career programs.
• Speaking of competing with local businesses; in some states the MoE would not be allowed without legislation being passed to specifically allow it. In Minnesota, for example, there is a state law prohibiting colleges and universities from directly competing with private businesses (or so I’ve been told several times). In other words, they want college students to learn how to be competitive in the global environment, as long as they don’t compete with the local business environment. Too damn bad. Get over it. This is how we will be able to afford education in the future – don’t shut it down (before it opens) due to 19th/20th century policies.
• The mall needs to have several different restaurants, so it’ll have a large culinary program where the students earn competencies in various different cuisines. Lots of other students also find work to do that is needed in a restaurant, but is also relevant to their program area. Customer comment cards become one piece of evidence that is used to determine when the students have achieved needed competency levels, along with the input from assessment professionals.
• What about art students? Too easy. How about art students who create their art (paintings, drawings, ceramics, etc.) in public? There is a constant student art show – renamed as the Student Art Store. People buy artwork for gifts, for home decoration, or just to support the art students and the MoE.
• Something else about the art students (and all others as well) – they have to achieve the required competencies related to entrepreneurship. Imagine that! An artist who learns how to survive in the business world. How to run their own business because that’s really what most of them want to do – they just don’t know it yet. Whether or not they have current plans to be a small business owner, someday they will. All students will be required to achieve competencies in entrepreneurship prior to graduation. Currently, almost no graduates of American colleges and universities know the first thing about running their own business. No surprise that 50% of all small businesses fail within the first 4 years. We can change that. (BTW, I’m talking about modern entrepreneurship practices, not the 1970’s curriculum taught by most continuing ed departments.)
• Music, theater, and dance? Sure. Every day there would be public performances or just open practices at the MoE. Come and enjoy. If they need a few extras and someone from the public would like to join in – well, wouldn’t that be great?
• I taught accounting for 17 years. How will accounting students learn at the MoE? Easy. Working with the accounting faculty, they will be responsible for the bookkeeping and accounting work needed for the different “businesses” (programs) at the MoE, as well as accounting for the college as a whole. They”ll learn accounting by doing it rather than trying to learn just out of a textbook. Trust me, they’ll learn much more. They’ll also be responsible for teaching other students about how to manage their personal finances (after the accounting students learn it first). Normal colleges do a poor job of teaching students about the lifelong skills they’ll need related to investments, taxes, insurance, and the like. MoE will do it for every student who comes through the electronic sliding door. There is a huge disconnect in American education that we almost NEVER teach lifelong financial knowledge/skills to students at any level.
• All students, regardless of program choice, will engage in the liberal arts through the Great Books, similar to St. John’s College.
• As they say at St. John’s, “Students study from the classics of literature, philosophy, theology, psychology, political science, economics, history, mathematics, laboratory sciences, and music.”
• Yep, even the automotive students.
• Basically this would look like lots of reading circles, and yes, the public can join in the conversation if they like – or just come and lurk and learn while the faculty and students discuss the great books in public forums.
• Maybe we need some Latin in the learning mix as well.
• Nobody escapes from demonstrating the competencies for critical thinking, nor learning about etiquette and netiquette, nor conflict resolution, nor any of the other soft skills mentioned in post #10. Doesn’t matter which program area you are in, these things are important – and they become more important as you shift through various jobs/careers in your life.
• You might be thinking that this is just on-the-job-training (OJT). You wouldn’t be wrong, but I’d say it’s OJT++, where the first plus is soft skills and the second plus in entrepreneurship. It might be better to call it College in the Real World (CRW). Besides, “training” always makes me think of training dogs – and we’re talking about people here.
• Maybe it’s time that we consider a new degree classification. I’ve been struggling with the thought that many of these degrees won’t “look like” a baccalaureate to many people. Of course those people are stuck in the past with an inflexible idea of what B.S. (or B.A.) “should” look like. Still, rather than fight that idea, maybe we need another classification. Not necessarily something that fits in between two existing degree levels – but something that stands alone. Something that is considered to be different – precisely because it is different.
• Rovy Branon replied to one of these posts on Google+ with an idea that deserves consideration. Rovy suggests that we look at the GED for inspiration. The next two bullets are his words. See his whole thought at his Google+ post.
• “My question is this: we have a GED for high school. It does not imply that the person went through the whole high school experience but shows that they have certain, specific knowledge outcomes that might be expected of a high school graduate.”
• “What about a BDE? A BDE is a Bachelor’s Degree Equivalency assessment program that demonstrates an expected college knowledge competency level without implying the rest of the college experience. Such programs might open doors for adults, AND protect the significance of earning a bachelor’s degree.”
• Keep in mind a few of the other things mentioned in previous posts:
• The MoE would provide opportunities for some students to opt-out of the last year or two of high school and get an early start on their college degree. A la Simon’s Rock. (Post #11)
• Less emphasis on specific skills and more emphasis on lifelong learning and knowing how to learn and stay current in your career field(s).
• Heavy emphasis on OER and other resources freely available. Expensive textbooks not required. The Great Books are free or very inexpensive.
• When the general public comes through our doors, they are agreeing to participate in the act of public education. Students will survey them and learn from them and in other ways conduct applied research with them as subjects.
• At the MoE, students work with faculty members, rather than sit and listen. Faculty work is substantially different than what you’ll find just about anywhere else. Both students and faculty are there to serve the public while they teach and learn. Some other examples of programs where students and faculty could serve the public while they learn include:
• graphic design
• e-commerce and marketing
• administrative assistants
• hospitality management
• machining and integrated manufacturing
• journalism
• video production
• I could add several more, but I think you get the picture
• However, it will not be the home for all degree options. We’ll still need traditional schools for much of that (at least in the short term).

Just to clarify a few things before I sign off:

1. Since I’ve been heavily involved in developing online learning opportunities, many people probably assumed that I would be recommending a heavy dose of online learning as the solution to the high price tags of education. Nope. Not at all. There are already lots of people working in the build out of online learning. I’m not trying to change education through online learning.  I’m interested in changing place-bound education.
2. However, there would be some online learning involved at the MoE – primarily for those things that don’t need to be covered while the students are on site. It also could be very effective as a preparation for students before they ever begin to work/learn on site. It’s kind of like the idea of the flipped classroom (only better). There won’t be any traditional lectures (closed off in a classroom) at the MoE, but some instructional delivery could be done online, if appropriate and valuable.
3. Nothing in education is ever one-size-fits-all. I’m not proposing that all colleges and universities should adopt this model. Not even close. I could see two or three schools of this type being supported in every state in the U.S. Yes, public schools, supported by public dollars. But, no, these schools wouldn’t be for everybody.
1. Faculty who want to do academic research will continue be able to get jobs at the thousands of universities that will still be out there.
2. Students who really need a football team to cheer for, will still be able to go to all of those other universities and colleges.
3. Students and faculty who prefer the “sit-n-git” approach to learning and teaching will still have lots of places where they can go for that. Just not to the Mall of Education.
4. Administrators who prefer to sit in an endless array of meetings each and every day – will still be able to do that in traditional academia.

Final Question:  What will this cost the students?

Sorry, I can’t be 100% sure about the answer to this question. This is a big idea that requires lots of details. I haven’t built a detailed business plan since that would require a boatload of hours for this thought exercise. If it remains just a thought exercise without any real chance to build such an educational opportunity, it’s really not worth the effort to work out all the gritty details. But as far as the sticker price goes, I can take a wild guess.

I’m most familiar with the state funding provided to 2-year schools in the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system (worked there for 15 years). Although the funding continues to shrink, I’m pretty sure that the allocation of state dollars works out to about $5K per equivalent full-time student per year. State universities in the same system probably receive a higher amount per student .

If a state government was willing to fund the MoE at a rate comparable to the current rate of $5K per student or so, per year – I’m pretty sure that students could earn their degrees without paying any tuition or fees. Through their labor and creativity and sweat, they will generate the rest of the money needed for the school to operate. Those eligible for federal and state financial aid will be able to pay their living expenses with that aid. Yes, this is a lot like Berea College and the College of the Ozarks (see post #11) – students work their way through the degree program – with a little help from their friends, including the state legislators.

I used the phrase “comparable rate” for a reason in the previous para. This will not be a “four-year degree” because students will be able to earn their competencies at a rate that is appropriate for them. Some might do it in 2 or 3 years. Some might take much longer. The state funding model based on how long the student attends if rife with problems (“we’re not going to let you graduate yet because we need more money!”) – so, we’ll need a new model. Possibly a formula that provides funding to the school based on (a) # of students starting a program, (b) another chunk for each student who reaches 25% of the competencies, (c) a chunk at  50%, (d) another at 75%, and (e) another upon graduation. Or something along those lines.

In conclusion: I believe that a state funded school could be run efficiently, effectively, and under a completely different model where students and employees serve the public – and that type of education could be free to the students.

Ready? Fire! Aim. – I’ll appreciate reading any shots that you’d like to take at this plan in the comments.

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Before I conclude this series of 12 posts, let me share some of the examples that I am aware of that have helped shape my thinking about what a new institution of higher ed might look like. Not all of these are low-price providers (see post #9 for more of those), but they have something to offer that is not business as usual. In no particular order:

Berea College in Kentucky is a private college in Kentucky, founded in 1855. All students are required to work a minimum of 10 hours per week at various jobs around the campus. Students exchange their labor for reduced tuition and fees, which currently run $910 per year. That’s actually calculated as a tuition of zero, and fees of about $900. Most students receive a four-year tuition scholarship (whether or not they are a star athlete). The college has its own hotel, the Historic Boone Tavern Hotel and Restaurant, which appears to be another profit center for the college plus another work outlet for the students.  Through Berea College Crafts, the public can buy student crafts and other artwork as another money-making operation that keeps the cost of attendance so low.

My former employer, Lake Superior College in Duluth, Minnesota has a couple of good examples to draw upon.

• Students in the dental hygiene program participate in the Lake Superior Community Dental Clinic, which provides dental services to under-served and under-insured people in the region that otherwise may not have access to dental care. The Clinic is usually open just two days a month, when dental care is provided by licensed (volunteer) dentists, dental hygienists and dental assistants, as well as LSC’s dental hygiene students.
• Students in the physical therapist assistant program at LSC, along with physical therapist students from the neighboring College of Saint Scholastica, along with licensed physical therapists, offer low-cost therapy services two days a week on the LSC campus. As stated in the Wave, “Physical therapy services are available to the general community for a $10 fee at Lake Superior College. For LSC students, staff and faculty, the services are available at no charge.”

Western Governor’s University (WGU) has eschewed the standard seat-time college credit system for a competency-based system of earning degrees. Some of their stated advantages include:

Bard College at Simon’s Rock, (nicknamed Simon’s Rock College) is a baccalaureate institution located in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Simon’s Rock is one of several “early college” institutions in the U.S., where students are allowed to enroll after completing the 10th or 11th grade, rather than after high school graduation.

St. John’s College is located in both Santa Fe and Annapolis. As stated on their website: “St. John’s College is a co-educational, four year liberal arts college known for its distinctive ‘great books’ curriculum.” Check out the graphic at the top of the post about their “faculty.” It continues:

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This is the tenth post in the series of twelve. In this and the next two posts, I’ll put together my thoughts for how a $10K degree institution could work. All posts are categorized as $10K Degree.

As I’ve been looking at this issue of the $10K degree, several things have risen to the top for me. So, if I were king and could create a new institution for learning, these would be some of my points of light. In no particular order:

• There’s nothing magical about $10,000 as a goal. What we’re really talking about here are affordable baccalaureates that don’t saddle students with mountains of debt, and which will hopefully position them to be employable in their chosen fields and/or well prepared for further schooling.
• There are already some traditional opportunities (in other words, schools that approach education in the old-school way) where the price of a four year degree is pretty close to the $10K mark in the first place. See the last post for more info. This new venture would not resemble those traditional opportunities – which is a good thing, in my opinion.
• I believe that we are talking about students who were not the high achievers in high school or other educational endeavors. High-achievers will be going elsewhere because they can (more in post 6 of the series). Therefore, I really do think we are talking about students who would typically be drawn to a community college environment – and now we’re looking at how to give them a more advanced degree in that same sort of environment. All students will be welcomed, but the target audience will be those who cannot get into a top-tier school, or who just don’t want to.
• The $10K University (abbreviated 10KU going forward) won’t get involved in very much cutting-edge research. They may get involved in a fair amount of applied research in areas where the students will be studying – in fact most of the research would be done by the students with a guiding hand from the faculty. (More on academic research in post 8.) 10KU won’t be an R1 university. It won’t pretend to be an R1, and it won’t want to be an R1. It will be an S1 institution of higher learning – where S1 stands for Students First!
• 10KU will use technology to enhance learning, but it will not be an online-only university or rely heavily on fully online courses. There’s plenty of those options out there already.
• 10KU will seek to partner heavily with local secondary schools. Even for the average high school students (not the high-achievers, remember?) it can be possible to create a better dovetail between the last two years of high school and the first two years of college. 10KU will help high schools graduate better educated citizens while also helping assure a solid pathway for those students to college degrees and potentially multiple different careers.
• Speaking of multiple careers, 10KU will have a heavy emphasis on lifelong learning. 10KU grads will have several learning strategies in their pocket that will enable them to stay on top of their career fields as well as shift into other career paths as needed or desired. Or, to just learn for the sheer joy of learning.
• No one will graduate from 10KU without having demonstrated a good grasp of the all-important “soft skills.” Much of the learning at 10KU will be centered around the following types of skills:
• communications of many different varieties
• critical thinking
• interpersonal skills
• problem-solving
• leadership abilities
• etiquette and netiquette
• networking and social networking
• conflict resolution
• self-motivation and self-discipline
• personal finance and money management
• people skills, including customer service
• No one will graduate from 10KU without a basic grounding in small business skills and/or entrepreneurship. Most if not all of the programs offered are naturals for graduates to run their own businesses and be their own boss. Even if they go to work for the man, most of this knowledge base is still incredibly useful to anyone as they go through life.
• 10KU will be competency-based. The length of time that it takes someone to complete will not be measured by weeks on the calendar, but by the achievement and demonstration of the expected competencies. The term “4-year degree” will not be used as it will only confuse. No credit hours, no semesters or quarters – you proceed at your pace as you gather evidence of having achieved the competencies.
• The amount of service learning and active learning will be extremely high. In fact, 10KU will be all about service to the community and involving everyone on the learning experience.
• 10KU will be a significant departure from almost all of the colleges and universities that I am familiar with. Therefore, we will need to build a whole new ship (see post #4). It might be possible to retrofit a current institution, but I’m afraid that the existing facilities would not be very conducive to the 10KU style of learning, to say nothing of the existing mindset.
• 10KU will rely exclusively on Open Educational Resources and other types of freely available learning materials – when such learning materials are actually needed. When students pay their tuition they are paying for everything. No surprise add-ons at the college bookstore – no parking fees – no technology fees (this is 2011, just look at a calendar) – not anything that faintly resembles the “we found a new revenue stream and now we’re going to milk it!” mentality.
• 10KU will have a tuition guarantee. When you enroll at 10KU your tuition rate (per competency or per bundle of competencies) will be a known figure going forward. Whether it takes you two years, four years, or six years to master your learning competencies – you’ll know what you need to pay. Prices might go up for the next incoming batch of students, but they won’t go up for you after you’ve started.
• Most of the employees at 10KU will be instructional staff. Some employees may very well have split duties – some of which is instructional and some non-instructional. Everyone at 10KU will be responsible for helping students achieve their goals, and every employee will know that this is an expected part of their jobs.
• Faculty members are expected to lead students through the learning process so that the students gain the required competencies. Other employees will be responsible for assessing student progress in reaching these goals. Faculty members have an inherent conflict of interest in evaluating their own students. Independent assessment professionals will determine when students are ready to move on.
• Intramural sports? Sure, why not, if inexpensive facilities are available. Intercollegiate sports? Nope. (see post #7 for more) If you really need a football team to cheer for, you can go to KU rather than 10KU. (Go Devils!! Fork ‘Em!!)

In the next post I’ll give you some real examples of what pieces of 10KU might look like. In the final post, I’ll try to tie it together with a snapshot of what 10KU would really look like.

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This is the ninth post in the series. Probably about 3 more coming soon. Then I’ll be all tuckered out. The next 3 will lay out my vision for a college with $10,000 baccalaureates. All posts are categorized as $10K Degree.

We know that we are nowhere close to the $10K degree when we are talking about the vast majority of universities, both public and private. But how close are we to having affordable degrees right now with the current offerings that students could choose from, if they live in the right states and all the stars line up just right?

It’s impossible for me to cover all of the low-cost (actually, low-price) providers in the higher ed space, but I’ll provide a few examples that I am aware of. Since the $10K degree target is for tuition/fees/books – I’ll estimate $900 per year for books regardless of the school under consideration.

Let’s say you take the first two years at a community college. Here are some schools I’ve found with low tuition.

1) Victor Valley CC in Victorville, California. In-state tuition/fees = $38/cr. (out-of-state = $214/cr.)
California schools are still a great bargain for in-state students:

• $38 * 30 cr. = $1,140 tuition/fees + $900 books = $2,040 per year
• There are many CC’s in CA with similar price structures. But you need to be a resident, of course.

2) Central New Mexico CC in Albuquerque, NM  In-state tuition = $579 per semester (out-of-state = $3,008)
The tuition/fees page is a bit of a mess, but it looks like:

• ($579 * 2) + $110 fees + $900 books = $2,168 per year
• How about that? You can get your first two years (60 credits) for $4,336 and you’ve spent less than half of your $10,000 allocated for the degree. If you’re a New Mexico resident. Most of the other NM colleges are probably about the same.

3) Southeast CC in Beatrice, Nebraska. In-state tuition/fees = $52/cr. (Out-of-state = $64/cr.)
We’ll look at both in-state and out-of-state on this one:

• 30 cr. * $52 = $1,560 + $900 books = $2,460 per year for Nebraska residents
• 30 cr. * $64 = $1,920 + $900 books = $2,820 per year for non-residents
• Some of the other Nebraska colleges are probably in the same ball park. Residents are on track for the $10K degree.

4) Georgia Virtual Technical Connection – the Georgia Technical Colleges.  Tuition = $45/cr. (allegedly)
According to their website: online courses are available at a low price. However, I tried 5 different college websites looking for info about low tuition for online courses and came up empty.  If I find it, I’ll update here. Pretty sure you’ll run into some transfer issues here for getting years 3 and 4 at a university (please correct me, if needed).

A couple others fall short of the target of no more than $2,500 per year.

5) Eastern Wyoming College in Torrington, WY. Resident tuition = $852 per semester for 15 credits.
For Wyo resident: ($852 * 2) + ($384 * 2 fees) + $900 books = $3,372

6) Portland CC in Portland, OR.  In-state tuition/fees = $85/cr. (Out-of-state = $211/cr.)
For OR (& surrounding states) residents: (30 cr. * $85) + $900  = $3,450

So, if you’re thinking about the first 2 years at a CC or TC, it looks like you have a few options, if you live in the right states. If you don’t, then the closest you can come (that I know of) is to hang out at the DQ in Beatrice, Nebraska for 2 years and spend 56.4% of your $10K allocation on tuition, fees, and books.

Now what are your options for years 3 & 4 to finish the baccalaureate? Some of the cheapest upper level (years 3 & 4) tuition and fee rates that I have found include:

If you happen to live in any of these states, the in-state tuition/fees are lower than most: (USN&WR)

• New Mexico Highlands University: Tuition/fees of $2,952 + $900 books = 3,852
• Macon State College (GA): $3,082 + $900 = $3,982
• Cal State Northridge: $3,702 + $900 = $4,602
• University of Wyoming: $3,726 + $900 = $4,626

If you don’t live in those states, or if your heart is set on going away to college, as an out-of-state student, then consider these:

• New Mexico Highlands University: Tuition/fees of $4,652 per year + $900 books = $5,552
• MN State Moorhead:  $6,918 + 900 = $7,818
• Several others in the $7,000 range – check out USN&WR

BYU-Idaho is an interesting option. Doesn’t matter if you are in-state or out-of-state. It does matter whether you are an LDS faithful, or not. LDS students pay only $1,835 in tuition and fees per semester. Non-LDS pay double that. (Private school of course, so they can make their own rules – nothing wrong with that.) For LDS students, that would be $4,570 per year.

The best deal I can find is for students who are New Mexico residents.

• Years 1 & 2 at a CC like Central New Mexico = $2,168 + 2,168 = $4,336
• Years 3 & 4 at New Mexico Highlands = $3,852 + 3,852 = $7,704
• Total cost for tuition/fees/books  $12,040

That’s pretty close to the arbitrary target of $10,000. It also assumes no price increases during the 4 year period – that you pass every class you take – that you never take a class that you don’t need – and that you come to the CC fully ready for college-level work (no remedial classes allowed) – and for heaven’s sake DON’T CHANGE YOUR MAJOR!!

California residents could do it for $13,284. Wyoming residents could do it for $15,996. Residents of any state could do it as an out-of-state student for $16,744 with two years in Nebraska and 2 years in New Mexico.

One last thing before I close. What about a bachelor’s degree from a school that is one of those 2yr/4yr hybrids? Several of the Florida Colleges now offer baccalaureate degrees which is why all their names changed recently along the lines of Sunshine State Community College becomes Sunshine State College.

For example: you decide that you want to earn a degree by attending Daytona State College for all 4 years.

• Years 1 & 2: $2,768 + 2,768 = $5,536
• Years 3 & 4: $3,010 + 3,010 = $6,020
• Total cost for tuition/fees/books  $11,556 (Florida residents)
  

Wow! And I nearly forgot about this option. Turns out to be the closest I’ve found to the $10,000 target. Then there’s a whole host of other good colleges in the same system: St. Petersburg College, Miami Dade College, Broward College, Florida State College at Jacksonville, and the list goes on and on.

Many other schools are members of the Community College Baccalaureate Association. But I’m really tired of hunting down low-price providers, so you can take it from here. Feel free to leave a comment if you know of other low-price colleges and universities that come close to providing the $10K baccalaureate.

Just so I don’t have to edit the stuff above (again!) – here’s the best deals I found:

1. Florida residents can learn B.S. for about $11.5K
2. New Mexico residents can learn B.S. for about $12K
3. California residents can learn B.S. for about $13K
4. Out-of-state students (as shown above) for about $17K

There a few colleges that have a different model where students basically work their way through school. These are very interesting and will be looked at in an upcoming post. Examples include Berea College (KY), College of the Ozarks (MO), Alice Lloyd College (KY), and others.

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This is the eighth post in a series of undetermined length. All posts are categorized as $10K Degree.

Let’s say that the mythical Rick Perry University (RPU) will be offering $10,000 baccalaureate degrees to those students who decide that RPU is just the type of educational opportunity they’ve been looking for (whatever that might be).

Can RPU afford to do much scholarly research and still keep their costs down to a level that allows for $10,000 tuition over 4 years? Some faculty and other academic researchers are able to attract external funding for special research projects. Those external funding sources can often result in some dollars making their way into the general fund, thereby helping pay the costs of running the institution and keep down the price of tuition. That’s one avenue for funding academic research.

The other main avenue for academic research is just the standard requirement related to “publish or perish.” In this case, almost all tenured and tenure-track professors (especially those of the Assistant or Associate varieties) are expected to spend a significant amount of their perspiration on the creation of scholarly research that gets published in the various academic journals (that nobody else in the world reads). The cost of this research is paid for from the general budget – it’s just part of the salaries paid to those employees. When I say that it comes from the general budget – that means that it comes from student tuition dollars and taxpayers funds from the state allocation.

Previously I posted some thoughts about whether it makes sense for public institutions (and the taxpayers and students who fund them) to pay such large sums for research. The field that I picked on was my former teaching field – Accounting. One question posed was “why should the state of Minnesota (insert your state here) pay a hundred (or more) people to conduct research in accounting?” Wouldn’t 2 or 3 accounting researchers pretty much cover it? That would still be 100-150 public employees doing accounting research when you factor in 2 or 3 from each of the 50 states. And doesn’t that still sound like a lot more than what is really needed?

Faculty workloads vary considerably throughout the academy. At the universities where I have worked, the typical load for a professor is 6 credits of teaching per semester, and the rest engaged in research and “service.” Any teaching done above 12 credits in the year is considered overload and they receive additional pay. This is generally considered to be about a 50% teaching commitment and 50% research. YMMV.

Caveat #1 – a fairly large percentage of faculty researchers that I have met (and worked with) over the years can’t teach their way out of a paper bag. So, proposing that they teach more is a double-edged sword. But here I go.

What would be the financial impact of changing to a teaching-first type of workload for a university department? Let’s say that the accounting department at State U has 10 full-time professors. With each of them on a 50/50 teaching/research workload, the State U has the equivalence of 5 full-time researchers and 5 full-time classroom instructors, teaching a total of 120 credit hours per year (10 profs * 12 credits each).

What if we changed the mix as follows:

• 8 faculty teach for 100% of their workload = 192 credit hours taught  (24 cr./yr * 8 faculty)
• 1 faculty member does the 50/50 split = 12 credit hours taught
• 1 faculty member does 100% research (your “best” researcher who might really make a difference)

Out of those 10 faculty members you are now getting 204 credits taught during the typical year instead of 120. That means that an additional 84 credits (or twenty-eight 3-credit classes) are now taught by your tenured faculty rather than adjuncts and other hangers-on (phrase deleted for being too snarky. Sorry.). Can I just tell you that we are talking about a huge savings per year, or do I need to calculate it for you? Okay, maybe later.

Let me also refer to a study titled “Faculty Productivity and Costs at the University of Texas at Austin” by Vetter, Matgouranis, and Robe.  (17 page PDF) In this study, the authors looked at the 2009-2010 salary data that was made public by UT.  I’ll quote from their executive summary (pg.3):

Recently released preliminary data from the University of Texas strongly suggest that the state of Texas could move towards making college more affordable by moderately increasing faculty emphasis on teaching. Looking only at the UT Austin campus, if the 80 percent of the faculty with the lowest teaching loads were to teach just half as much as the 20 percent with the highest loads, and if the savings were dedicated to tuition reduction, tuition could be cut by more than half (or, alternatively, state appropriations could be reduced even more—by as much as 75 percent).  Moreover, other data suggest a strategy of reemphasizing the importance of the undergraduate teaching function can be done without importantly reducing outside research funding or productivity.

A couple of other tidbits from the study:

• 20% of the UT faculty teach 57% of the student credit hours. Let’s call them the “Top 20%.”
• 20% of the faculty teach 2% of the student credit hours. Let’s call them the “Bottom 20%.”
• You might think that the bottom 20% would generate more of UT’s research funding than the top 20%. You would be wrong.
• 2% of the faculty generate 57% of the research funding.
• The 2% mentioned directly above still teach about the average amount of student credit hours as the rest of the faculty.
• Is it just me, or does it seem that the other 98% should have some time on their hands where they could teach a lot more to earn their salaries?

Yes, I know that this will be perceived by some as an anti-research rant. I’m not against academic research at all. I just have a very different perspective of how much is needed/wanted. I’d say that generally speaking, the amount of faculty time and salaries spent engaged in academic research is too much – by a factor of – say, 5 times! That’s right. I’m thinking we could do 20% of the current amount of research (led mainly by our “best” researchers), devote the rest of our resources to teaching (and hire faculty who know what they’re doing in the classroom) and we’d be able to keep the cost of tuition down to a reasonable amount.

Keep in mind that I’m really only talking about state-funded universities here. If private schools want to engage in an absurd amount of research and can afford to do so – more power to ’em. The faculty who really don’t want to teach can get jobs with the privates. Taxpayer dollars would be better spent in funding excellent teaching at the public universities, and student tuition rates could be kept at much lower levels.

I know that I’m wrong about this, but I’m not sure why. Any comments you would like to leave to help me see the light would be most appreciated.

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This is the seventh post in a series of undetermined length. All posts are categorized as $10K Degree.

If the first two years of a $10K degree are taken at a community college, a student should be pretty much on track for a $10,000 baccalaureate. Then the university tuition kicks in for years 3 and 4. The average in-state undergraduate tuition at a 4-yr school is roughly three times what it is at a CC (see post #5 for more details).

So why are the 4-yr universities so much more expensive than the 2-yr colleges? There’s a whole host of reasons, but here are some of them:

• Many more faculty with doctorates at a university – and positions requiring a doctorate naturally pay more than positions requiring a master’s degree (which is the most common degree held by CC faculty).
• As I’ve already indicated in previous posts, university faculty teach about half as much as college faculty. They generally have higher salaries and generally teach a lot less – therefore, the faculty salary cost per student taught is much larger at universities than at colleges. They teach less because they are expected to pursue academic research – which is the topic of the next post in the series.
• Most universities have many more and much larger facilities than most 2-yr colleges. You can find some exceptions to the rule – but that rule is still a pretty good one.  Big, lavish buildings cost a lot of money. How important are the jogging trails, climbing walls, fabulous landscaping, beautiful student lounges and game rooms? Colleges have some of this stuff, but not to the extent that you find it on university campuses.
• Most universities spend much more lavishly on athletics than do the colleges. Some colleges have athletics (without spending that much on them – there are no million dollar coaches at the colleges), but many colleges have no athletics at all. There’s probably a university out there that has no athletic teams, but I haven’t heard of them. And most universities lose money on their athletics – so students either pay more for tuition or pay a special athletics fee – or both. If you want a very good and long reading on the deplorable status of college sports, check out the Atlantic article: “The Shame of College Sports.” For the record, I love college sports. However, if I’m going to be practical about it, the whole thing has very little to do with educating our citizens.
• Most universities have a much larger non-instructional staff per student than do colleges. I’m talking about the number of administrators, secretaries, custodians, lab assistants, middle managers, etc. I’ve been looking for some research to back up this claim, and when I find it, I’ll stand down if I’m wrong. But I think I’m right. (See notes 1 & 2 below)
• Just the cost of security alone at universities is often an enormous amount of money. They have the equivalent of their own police force scouring the campus, ever vigilant against the freshman prankster. Colleges have security also, but most of these are bare bones staff or of the rent-a-cops variety. (Just wondering: why don’t universities have their own fire department, too?)
• In short, everything is just bigger and more expensive at the typical state university than at the typical state college. Tuition, on average, costs the student about 3 times as much at a university than at a college.

The Question: Are all the trappings at the typical university worth the cost of the extra tuition to the students?

NOTE 1: as one example for bloated cost of non-instructional staff, check out the University of Michigan flagship campus in Ann Arbor where Wolverine administrators received over $366 million in pay during 2009-10. The total allocation of state funds to the U that year was $325 million – which doesn’t even cover the pay for administrators. This doesn’t include all the other non-instructional staff. This situation would never occur at a 2-year college – or even anywhere close to it.

NOTE 2: for sheer numbers of non-instructional employees, check out Michigan State University as another example. Fall 2010 showed 4,921 faculty positions (that includes adjuncts and anyone else teaching a class), and 6,220 non-instructional employees. In that case, 44% of the total positions were faculty, with 56% non-instructional. My former employer ( a 2-yr school) had 292 faculty out of 551 total positions for 53% faculty, 47% non-instructional (in 2010).

BTW, I’m not trying to pick on the Michigan universities. It’s just that their data was easy to find – and many of the other schools I looked at had no data available at all.

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This is the sixth post in a series of undetermined length. All posts are categorized as $10K Degree.

One of the questions that I posed at the SREB meetings is “who is this degree opportunity intended for?” It is my contention that the $10K degree will not be appealing to those top students who are able to enroll at top universities and can afford to pay full price or who have enough financial aid available to them that they can actually afford to attend these schools.

• Tuition/fees/books to attend Harvard = $37K * 4 yrs. = $148,000
• Tuition/fees/books to attend U of Chicago = $38.5K * 4 yrs. = $154,000
• Tuition/fees/books to attend UCLA = $15K * 4 yrs. = $60,000

OR

•   Tuition/fees/books to attend Rick Perry University = $2.5K * 4 yrs. = $10,000

Let’s assume that students who get accepted into Harvard, Chicago, and UCLA can also get accepted in the Rick Perry University (RPU). Now they have a choice to make. I’m guessing that 99.9% of those who get accepted to the first three schools are going to try everything they can think of to pay the price of attendance.

In other words, I don’t believe that RPU will be an attractive alternative to the high-achieving students. I’m also not saying that it should be an attractive alternative. This is not a value judgment; I’m just trying to be realistic.

The point I’m trying to make is that we have to plan RPU to properly serve the students who are going to be attracted to it. In my opinion, those are the C students and below (from high school) or those returning students with very low self-confidence about their ability to succeed in a rigorous academic program (this is directly related to the perception issue of the $10K degree schools, I’m not saying that they wouldn’t be rigorous). Of course I could be wrong, but humor me for a bit.

Many of the proposals at the SREB meetings had to do with alternative means of earning credits:

• Dual enrollment credits or “College in the Schools” (CiiS)
• Credit for prior learning (CPL)
• Credit by exam  (CBE)

The idea was for most of the students to earn these alternative forms of credits, which are cheaper than full seat-time classes and speed up the time to completion of the degree.

Here’s the problem.  Average or below average students typically are unable to legitimately earn credits by those means. CiiS is usually** only available to high-achieving students. It stands to reason that high school students who are not able to read and write at the college level are not ready to take college level courses while still in high school. There are plenty of examples where high school students have completed an AA or AS degree while still in high school, but those are high achieving students for whom high school is largely a waste of their academic talents. Getting two years of college out of the way (with no tuition charges) certainly makes it easier to reach the $10K price target – but it’s just not realistic for average and below average achievers.

CPL?  Credit for prior learning is relevant to those non-traditional students who have some life and work experiences that might be worthy of being transcripted. However, most colleges already have these mechanisms in place and they rarely, if ever, are able to serve the new, first-time, college entrants. These people don’t have any experience that will earn them CPL. Seems to me that this is much ado about nothing.

CBE?  See the argument about the validity of CiiS above. Same thing here. Average and below average high school students are not going to fair well in trying test out of college credits. Above average students aren’t going to be interested in RPU – so this isn’t part of a viable solution either.

So, if we’re not talking about high achieving students being attracted to the RPU’s of the world, just what are talking about? Sounds to me like we’re talking about something similar to applied bachelor’s degrees in technical fields – and if so, do we really need that?

** NOTE: when I made this statement at one of the SREB tables (about CiiS only being for high-achieving students), I was quickly informed that in North Carolina they do offer CiiS to low performing students – in fact, they said that there had been some sort of legislation passed requiring them to do so. This is an interesting concept that I want to look into more deeply, but it strikes me on the surface as being aimed at those H.S. students who may be on track for entering a 2-yr technical college program. Many of the AAS degree programs still require college level reading and writing, but not all do. I’ll maintain my opinion for now that CiiS is “almost entirely” aimed at high achieving students. And RPU will not be attractive to those same students.

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This is the fifth post in a series of undetermined length. All posts are categorized as $10K Degree.

Trying to run the high hurdles is a challenge. It becomes more of a challenge as they continue to raise the hurdles to new heights. College prices also continue to explode to new heights. I’m going to share two little tidbits of data that help illustrate how high the hurdle is for the mythical $10,000 baccalaureate degree.

Textbooks and Other Class Materials

The data used in the SREB meetings indicate that the average spent on textbooks and similar course materials are a whopping $4,540.  Keep in mind that this figure assumes that the student completed the degree in four years and with no wasted credits. Therefore, figure in another 20-30% in cost for the true “average student.” Let’s just round off and say five grand.  (CC photo by fófs)

That’s half of the desired price tag. Ouch.

Yesterday I made a webinar presentation about Open Educational Resources and Creative Commons licensing and the advancement of these alternatives to the traditional textbook publishing model. I don’t see any other way of getting to the $10K degree without utilizing OER in a major way. As in 100% of the course materials would need to be OER or similar. The cost to the student needs to be reduced to zero, or very near that.

This is not the most outlandish idea ever, except maybe to bookstore managers and CFO’s who have come to rely on bookstore profits. Does the K-12 system charge each student for textbooks? Not that I’m aware of. It’s a cost of doing business that they absorb. Do they want to pay higher and higher prices for textbooks? Pretty sure they don’t, which is why OER are getting more and more attention in the secondary schools and below.

Public University Sticker Shock vs. For-Profit Sticker Shock

Lots of people have been beating up on the for-profits lately. Sometimes with good reason, but just as often without any apparent evidence or support. Let’s take a look at some recent data. The National Center for Education Statistics recently published a report titled “Postsecondary Institutions and Price of Attendance in the United States, 2010-11, …” (report PDF) which contains data that is useful to this analysis.

Ask this question of the next 10 people that you see. “Which do you think costs more, an out-of-state student attending the local public university, or that same student attending a private, for-profit university?”

On page 9 of the report you’ll find your answer. On average, being an out-of-state student at the public U costs more than going to a for-profit U.

Public 4-yr U, out-of-state = $15,742 average tuition/fees

Private 4-yr. U , for-profit = $15,700 average tuition/fees

This reminds me of something that a friend of mine from Davenport University said during a conference presentation: “I don’t think there’s that much difference between the for-profits and the ‘for-surplus’ schools.”  I thought that was a brilliant way of changing the conversation about the “not-for-profit” schools.

Not-for-profit schools are really “For-Surplus Schools.”

Similar goals, just different terminology.

To close this post, let’s take a look at the current average tuition/fees for a student, assuming 2 years at the “in-district” community college and two years as an in-state student at the public university. Since this scenario would take four years to play out, I’ll assume a 5% tuition increase each year from the 2010-11 rates.

Yr. 1 @ 2-yr school = $2,716
Yr. 2 @ 2-yr school = $2,852  (assume 5% increase)
Yr. 3 @ 4-yr school = $7,424  (assume 10% increase over current $6,749)
Yr. 4 @ 4-yr school = $7,795  (assume 5% increase over year 3)

Total tuition/fees  =  20,787

So, if books and materials cost the student zero, we “only” need to cut the tuition and fees by about 52% to get them down to $10,000. You might notice that if we could get 4 years of credits at the 2-year school rates – we’re almost there with an average of $10,864 ($2,716 X 4) if we hold tuition constant over four years. But who would want a 4-yr degree from a 2-yr school? Oh, that’s right, it’s already happening. We’ll look at that in an upcoming post.

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