Getting More Bang for the Buck in Higher Education - NYTimes.com

Getting More Bang for the Buck in Higher Education - NYTimes.com:

From the comments:

 I like the correlation between vastly higher college costs (up 50%) and vastly greater effects of a college degree (earnings up 75%). As a university professor I can tell you exactly why college costs have soared (and no, it is not our salaries). It is accountability. 30 years ago at a typical university, professors had almost absolute power and autonomy. As human nature dictates, a surprising number used this complete lack of supervision as an opportunity to jack around. Unprepared classes and dreadful teaching became the national norm. Nowadays, times have completely changed. Universities are brimming with administrators and staff whose job is to keep tabs on things like student learning, retention rates, and so on. Professors are discouraged in every possible way from jacking around, and also from my observation today's generation of professors is very conscientious because there has been a surfeit of qualified people for at least 20 years now. All this supervision and self-study is not free or even cheap, and it is a major contributor to the cost of college now. Those who would suggest it is not needed, it doesn't matter because we cannot pare it down. Such elements are now required for accreditation of a modern university. We need so much more than blackboards, chalk, and grumpy old professors these days.