Saturday, October 09, 2010

Why do degrees cost so much ?

Various headlines are flying round about the prospect that the cost of degrees may have to be born by those who most directly benefit from them. ( I've just seen one at £80k in the Daily Mail. I'm slightly at a loss as to why only evil middle class students need to pay these bills - surely every student benefits equally and should be charged the same. )

What's strange is there is not enough effort to ask why they are so expensive.

I guess this will become more of a concern when people pay for them directly rather than socialising the cost to other people - when the cost is of no consequence to the individual.

Given that we are competing with Eastern Europe, China, Brazil & India its perhaps time to look at our cost base and ask some hard questions.

4 comments:

Chuckles said...

I think you would be hard pressed to show that anyone benefits from most of them least of all the recipient.

Man in a Shed said...

I think you have a point in many cases. Since we a broke it is surely time to start asking the hard questions.

If we must all work until we drop - why do we add 3-5 years of time to our youths unproductive period of their lives ?

I bet a good degree could be taught with vastly lower cost base - and perhaps time base also.

Anonymous said...

Can you not outsource degrees. after all many people with degrees obtained in India etc finally work in the UK.

Man in a Shed said...

It occurs to me that much of what goes on in a degree does not need to be high cost, when repeated each year.