Tuition in America

The goal of higher education has a simple goal: educate those who want to learn, and allowing them to further improve their chances at obtaining a high income position.  However, universities have started to feel pressure to be the best university in order to create the best opportunities for their students.  Robert Frank writes about the consequences of this competitiveness, which has ultimately led to universities hiking up the price of tuition. 

The logic behind tuition raises still remains questionable.  Why would it make sense to raise monetary values of a college education and push out potential highly capable students who may not be able to afford the tuition? 

As I argued in a past entry, there is a problem with institutions raising prices to create any form of competitive edge or selectiveness.  Limiting human capital is the worst things a country can have occur.

In this case, the tuition raises are coming due to a perception by large corporations only considering students for employment from a select list of schools.  While this makes sense for convenience, the truth is that historical experience may support choosing candidates from these schools.  But Frank states the need to bump up the competitive level of these schools via tuition is unnecessary.

In my belief, there shouldn’t even be a high effect.  Coming from a school that is likely not in the highest tier of the chosen universities, the development in my human capital has grown similar to the state that I have seen from my former high school peers.  I reiterate that there is a benefit for corporations to target select schools for the convenience factor, but truly the corporations are likely missing out on maximum growth with their candidate selections. 

The situation goes back to the ability to efficiently skill match for positions around the United States.  I believe the first step to improving the matching process is to avoid limiting human capital.  Let’s hope that Frank’s message to the top tier universities stop the rising costs in tuition.

Reference:   

1. Frank, Robert. “The Prestige Chase is Raising College Costs”. NY Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/11/business/college-costs-are-rising-amid-a-prestige-chase.html?_r=1
2. King, Stephen. “Should We Break Up Our Universities”. CoRE Economics. http://economics.com.au/?p=8388