Cost disease and tuition fees

[AliSheph]

I’ve been reflecting on this article in the context of the ongoing debate in the UK about value for money with regard to higher education, given the recent UG fees increases.

A couple of articles on this theme

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/youth-unsure-of-university-cost-benefit-analysis/2004224.article

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/features/something-new-in-freedom/2/2003930.article

One thing that strikes me is that many of the academic staff involved in free education initiatives (be that MOOCs, Saylor, free universities as above) have a day job at a traditional institution.  Therefore, is that institution subsidising the supposedly ‘free’ education – either directly or indirectly as the staff member may have their attention/energy diverted from their day job.  What about the sunk costs of the education of the staff at a traditional institution?  In the commercial world, this type of cross-subsidy happens but rarely willingly, in my experience, and understandably so.  Should the moral imperative of access to education override the sense of fairness to institutions?

In terms of what I will take for my practice, I think these articles serve to firm up my belief that we have to make university worth it – and one way is to enrich our courses and pedagogical techniques using technology.  That’s certainly one part of my job, in my view.

[David Jennings]

Thanks for the links, Alice. You make a good point about academic staff with salaries from institutions being involved in free education initiatives. Before anyone else beats me to it, I should point out that the same applies to ocTEL and many members of our team!

Could you extend this critique to the production of OERs as well, do you think?

[AliSheph]

Hi David

Yes, I think one could extend it to OERs although for an individual OER time commitment may not be as great and tutor is probably creating OER for a purpose related to their day job and then choosing to make it open to other users, which I feel is slightly different – a sort of OER by-product?

[David Jennings]

In some (perhaps most) cases, yes, that’s definitely true. It’s like cooking a four course meal for your students, and then saying “Oh, I’ve got a few leftovers of the main course – let’s save them going to waste, eh?” However, if you listen to Fernando’s webinar he describes his OER production as specifically designed for one platform (iTunes U) and for that specific audience. So not a byproduct – but then he does work for the Open University.

[James Kerr]

Similar situations are occurring here in the U.S. as well-tuition and education costs are rising, aid and resources are diminishing, graduates carry crippling student loan debt, yet universities are offering “free” resources left and right.  These things don’t happen in a vacuum; the costs are spread out over many different initiatives, and some have grant funding, but are the “free” resources ultimately costing enrolled students more tuition?  I suspect yes.

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