The average private four-year college cost is now up to $50,000 a year; that’s about $1,000 a week for the school year’s duration. Can that last? Not likely.
With the economic downturn and with the college-aged population decreasing over the next 10 years, things have got to change. Maybe those changes will be for the best.
Expensive colleges have already begun to try to reduce college students’ debt. They are working to reduce student loans and increase grants from their own endowments. Families that can afford the intuition will do so, but those students coming from families making less than $100,000 may have better opportunities to go to higher priced colleges.
Public university and community college enrollment will increase. There may be a stretch of resources in such schools at first, but there will also be many improvements and lots more intellectual competition among the students.
Some schools may go to year-round courses or trimesters. Such a schedule will allow schools to enroll more students, and faculty will teach more for their salaries. This will give students flexibility in getting their credits more quickly.
More international and non-traditional, or older, students will be coming to campus. Colleges will up their acceptance of international students who pay full tuition for economic necessity, and more people who have lost jobs will go back to school to transition to new careers. This will create more diversity and more focus on education on campuses.
Finally, there will be more online learning. Technology brings educational costs down for students and allows universities to add students. Not only is the University of Phoenix, a well-known online college, going to be popular, but many universities are converting their courses to online. There will be more courses available for everyone.
Perhaps change is good, and there will be more interesting and helpful changes for students at post-secondary educational institutions.
