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Charging U
Why is college so expensive? Charging U explores the causes of high college tuition. If you want to know where all your money is going and why college costs so much more now than it did in the past, join host Larry Bernstein as he looks at how individual pricing, government policy, rankings, endowments, loans, luxurious amenities, administrative bloat, athletics, research, and other factors affect the price we pay for college.
Charging U
15. How to Reduce the High Cost of College
The underlying cause of the high cost of college is an inability to objectively demonstrate quality or the value added by a college. Currently, college rankings are determined by the amount of money they have and spend. Those with more prestige are able to charge higher tuition. Higher education institutions need to be incentivized to adopt a system which measures the knowledge and abilities of students and make those results publicly available.
This would involve organizing colleges to prioritize student success. They can reduce spending on programs which do not advance their missions of instruction and research. This would include removing institutional support of intercollegiate athletics and frivolous research. It would also entail eliminating student services which do not substantially improve the acquisition of skills or learning outcomes. The federal government can fund the research necessary to determine what interventions will lead to the formation of a successful system and incentivize colleges to adopt them.
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