Reining in College Costs

Higher-education costs are spiraling out of control, and quality leaves much to be desired. The surprising solution, argues a college president: online learning

By Michael Bassis

Even before the current economic downturn, the issue of cost had become the dominant public concern about American higher education. Over the past several decades, tuition has increased at a faster rate than inflation and faster than the growth in family incomes. Too many students graduate with staggering debt, leading many to avoid critical but low-income careers. The cost of attendance has discouraged many students from groups typically underrepresented in higher education from even thinking about going to college. In a global economy that is increasingly knowledge-based, reduced access to higher education is a problem because of its potential impact on economic growth and on the social and cultural well-being of this country.

Concerns that colleges cost too much are accompanied by claims that we deliver too little. In national surveys, employers say that too many college graduates lack the skills they need to be successful in the rapidly changing workplace. Groups such as the Business-Higher Education Forum and the Partnership for 21st Century Skills point out that there is a profound gap between the knowledge and skills most students learn in school and those they will need in the communities and workplaces of the 21st century. Just as disturbing, employers point out that our primary method of "certifying" the competence of our graduates—a transcript—is not seen as a meaningful measure of their skills and abilities as potential employees.

While almost every industry has made great strides over the last two decades in lowering its costs and increasing its productivity, our colleges and universities have not. The problem is that conventional wisdom in academia posits a direct relationship between cost and quality. We know we can reduce costs by increasing the size of classes and faculty teaching hours, hiring more adjuncts in place of full-time faculty, and eliminating merit-based aid. Three-year degrees, no-frills programs, and online learning can also reduce costs. But all of these measures are seen as threats to quality. Traditional indicators of quality such as small classes taught by distinguished faculty, grand campuses with impressive libraries and laboratories, and bright, heavily recruited students are all costly. There is no way to break the link between cost and quality when quality is defined only by those things that require substantial resources.

The Potential of Online Learning

There is another way to define quality that actually makes more sense. That entails thinking of quality in terms of outcomes rather than resources—focusing on student learning instead of the size of the endowment. Research conducted by Dennis Jones and Jane Wellman suggests that we would be able to break the link between cost and quality if we measured quality in terms of performance outcomes. They found that "there is no consistent relationship between spending and performance, whether that is measured by spending against degree production, measures of student engagement, evidence of high-impact practices, students' satisfaction with their education, or future earnings."

Are there instructional designs that have the capacity to lower costs and enhance the outcomes of the educational experience? Let's return to the case of online learning. This design began as an inexpensive way to deliver the standard curriculum. While it did provide increased access to many students, it was widely regarded as inferior to traditional degrees delivered by faculty in the classroom. But online learning is proving to be a classic example of a disruptive technology.

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