Tuesday, August 3, 2010

How the Push for Online Degrees Hides the Cause of the UC's Financial Probelms

Inside Higher Ed has a new article on Dean Edley and his promotion of online education as the solution to all of the University of California’s problems. It is clear from this piece, and Edley’s constant efforts at promoting a UC version of digital education, that the push for an online solution serves two important functions for the university’s administration: it hides the true causes for the UC’s fiscal problems, and it offers an avenue for more centralized control.

I have been writing for a year that the university has been blaming Sacramento for all of its problems because it does not want to look at its own issues. As I have shown, the central driving force behind the UC budget crisis is the loss of $23 billion of investments during the period of 2008-09. This huge loss dwarfs the state reduction of $600 million, and yet the university has never had to explain why and how it lost so much money and what it plans to do to prevent this from happening in the future.

Another major issues that is starting to get some attention is the idea that the university is losing money on its externally funded research grants. Even the Commission on the Future of the University has argued that the UC system is losing at least $300 million a year because its grants do not pay for the full cost of research. It is clear that a turn to online undergraduate education will not solve the research funding problem and will only function to obscure the investment losses.
However, one thing that the push for online education will do is to help the administration develop and control the undergraduate curriculum. As the Inside Higher Ed article states, the Berkeley Faculty Association “was particularly unnerved by the idea of graduate student-instructors being the “frontline of contact” with online students, as Edley put it. For some, that sort of talk evokes a model many for-profit institutions have used to keep payroll expenses low and administrative control high: have full-time faculty put together the syllabus, then hire less-expensive adjuncts to deliver it.” The idea here is that once the online courses are developed, the central administration can decide who teaches the courses, and the faculty senate will lose their current control over curricular decisions.

Edley’s response to the fear that the administration will take over and replace tenured faculty with adjuncts and graduate students is to argue that the online programs will generate huge profits that can be used to hire more tenured faculty, and this project offers the only hope for the economically challenged system. However, when Inside Higher Ed asked Edley and others to provide details on how the online courses would make money, they received the following response,” The university could not immediately provide the details of its financial modeling, but other documents suggest that the money would come from tuition, fees, and perhaps licenses for "premium access" to course content.” In other words, the UC has no idea how much money it will lose or gain, and it plans to use student fees and tuition to pay for the online courses.

It is interesting that the first comment on the Inside Higher Ed article comes from “Dean Dad,” an administrator who writes regularly for Inside Higher Ed: “It's increasingly clear that public higher ed won't be able to rely on the state to the extent it has in the past; that's especially true in California. As awkward as it can be to grow revenues, it beats cutting costs. The details matter, and I assume they'll evolve, but Edley is broadly right to look at ways to make the core educational mission self-sustaining.” The administrative logic here is that since states are cutting their support for higher education and because undergraduate instruction loses money, the only way to make education sustainable it to let it turn to online education as a mode of making money off of undergraduate students. Yet, as I have continued to show, undergraduate education already turns a huge profit, and these profits are used to sustain the unprofitable sectors like administration and external research.

14 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nice post. I really appreciate it

    ReplyDelete
  4. Great post! Here's a website that will help you find an alternative to GED online.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Your article contains a great amount of knowledge. This helped me a lot. Your article inspired me. Thanks for giving us great knowledge... :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. With the advancement of technology, many universities across the world are now offering online degree programs. The main advantage of getting your Masters degree online is that you are not tied down by the traditional method of attending class.
    Affordable Online Degrees

    ReplyDelete
  7. I just wanted to comment on your blog and say I really enjoyed reading your blog here. It was very informative and I also digg the way you write! Keep it up and I'll be back soon to find out more mate.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Nice blog, thanks for sharing the information. I will come to look for update. Keep up the good work.

    ReplyDelete
  9. It is never a smart thought to walk aimlessly into a dealership, choose an auto and after that approach the merchant for financing. Merchants are famous for including this expense and afterward that cost on to the sticker cost and before you know it, that sticker cost has hopped a couple of hundred dollars. cash advance

    ReplyDelete
  10. There are two ways understudies wind up paying more than they ought to for their understudy advances. The first is through movable rates. Customizable rates look low when you begin the advance, however they change, which quite often implies they go up. check cashing

    ReplyDelete
  11. Thought about cherished your website. I’ve long been exploring for a bit of good advice, and yet I would always land up seeking out for a junky. Nowadays follow this Payday Loans Costa-mesa Thanks a lot completely profession.

    ReplyDelete
  12. ที่สุดของสล็อตออนไลน์
    จะเล่นทั้งที ต้องเลือกเว็บที่ถูกใจ
    เว็บนี้ช่วยคุณได้
    สล็อต66

    สล็อต66

    ReplyDelete