Spencer Beswick: Mainstream coverage of academia this year was all about "wokeness," AI, and accusations of anti-semitism re: Palestine protests, but this is the real story underlying all else. Most people outside of academia have no idea the extent to which higher ed is contracting and crumbling.

Mainstream coverage of academia this year was all about "wokeness," AI, and accusations of anti-semitism re: Palestine protests, but this is the real story underlying all else. Most people outside of academia have no idea the extent to which higher ed is contracting and crumbling.

I think the "reduce costs" is often redistributing expenses. Athletics are doing fine. pittsburghsportsnow.com/2024/06/21/m...

Most Recent Pitt Athletic Department Earnings Revealedpittsburghsportsnow.com The most recent Pitt athletic department earnings, from July 2022 through June 2023, have been revealed by a former Pittsburgh reporter.

And if you pointed this out to them, they’d probably say “well of course colleges are failing, look at how woke/antisemitic/redundant they are!”

But tuition is going down, right? Right???

you're correct www.forbes.com/sites/derekn...

The Cost Of College Continues To Declinewww.forbes.com The actual cost of going to college is cheaper than it’s been in ten years.

Oh! Well, that is good. Certainly not the headlines you see around here, where you hear that the sticker price at BU approaches $90k per year all-in.

I have a hard time wrapping my head around the cost of attending many US private colleges. Approaching $100k/yr for a degree is well beyond my means. I teach at a top Australian uni and the cost of the degree is closer to $30k-40k/yr in USD for a domestic student.

That is including room and board with tuition.

average cost of tuition in the US is around $40k-$50k i would argue. schools advertise their full tuition prices, but the actual cost comes down when financial aid is factored in. there will always be outlier prestigious schools asking $95k, but this is not the burden for typical american students

A record number of colleges shuttered this year, and that trend is only going to accelerate.

I am reasonably confident that somewhere some jagoff reading this is thinking 'Large language models are going to make higher education unneeded in the future' if this wasn't depressing enough already.

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