THE CURRENT,
BROKEN EDUCATION MODEL1
College tuition is continuously increasing. According to
Forbes, in 2017, private colleges planned to raise tuition to almost double the current inflation rate. For example, Massachusetts, recently
announced that tuition at their public universities will increase by three percent
this fall. This increase follows five percent or higher increases within the past two previous
years. In the last twenty years, tuition has increased more than 100 percent at public four-year institutions and more than 60 percent at private
four-year institutions after adjusting for inflation. During that same period
of time, family income has increased less than 20 percent. As a result, student
loan debt has skyrocketed. In 2016, the average debt per college student was
just over $37,000. In total, Americans owe over 1.4 trillion in student loan
debt , a number that’s larger than the annual GDP of Russia, Australia, and
Spain. Clearly, the current model is broken and unsustainable.
According to the MissionU website2, while the
cost of tuition continues to skyrocket, the value of a bachelor's degree is
plummeting. Only 18% of students who start a bachelor's degree graduate in 4
years, and less than half of those strongly agree that it was worth the cost.
AN EMERGING,
NEW EDUCATION MODEL
The emerging, new education model discussed here has
three key components:
·
It employs internet-based technologies 1
·
It involves a major shift in focus from
providing a 4-year on campus college education to simply acquiring the
necessary skills to begin rewarding careers1
·
It involves institutions investing in their
students, instead of vice versa3
SOME EXAMPLES
OF THE NEW MODEL
MissionU, San Francisco3
MissionU charges no monies up front. Instead, students
agree to pay 15 percent of their salary for three years after graduating from the program and securing a position that has a salary of at least $50,000 a year.
"We are in the midst of a national crisis around
student debt," said Adam Braun, CEO and co-founder. "We need to have
institutions investing in their students, instead of vice versa."
Learner’s Guild, Oakland4
At the California-based Learners Guild, students go
through a 10-month software development program. The school does not ask for any tuition unless they are able to acquire a job that pays at least $50,000 a
year. If they do so, the students share 12.5 percent of their salary with the
school for the next three years.
Holberton School, San Francisco4
Holberton School has a similar structure. Students attend school for nine months before participating in a six-month internship. After that,
students are encouraged to find a job while continuing to study online for the
next nine months. Holberton requires its students to pay 17 percent of their internship as well as 17 percent of the first three years of their salary, only
if they accept a position paying more than $50,000 a year.
Make School, San Francisco4
Make School conducts its program over a two-year period, in which students come to school for nine months, leave for a six month
internship, and return for another nine months. The students can use the final
nine months to focus their studies on specific areas of computer science that
intrigue them. The school collects 25 percent of students' internship salaries
as well as 25 percent of their first three years salary. If students earn
less than $60,000 a year following the program, the repayment is paused, the
school says.
ANCIENT CONCEPTS IN
NEW MODEL5
In this newly emerging education model, elements of ancient Chinese Medicine can be found. This helthcare system developed independently of Western
medicine 3,000 years ago. Historically,
a Chinese Medicine doctor was paid a retainer to keep their clients
healthy. If a client became sick, the
doctor would not be paid until the client’s health returned. In a similar vein, a doctor that resorted to
surgery was considered an inferior doctor. If doctors did their job correctly
and helped their clients stay healthy, there would be no need to perform
surgery.
REFERENCES
Posted by: Dr. Nat Tuivavalagi
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