I think, particularly in private education in the US, there is going to be a bubble that is going to pop soon. With continued monetization of education obviously comes people whose job it is to continue monetizing it (more administration). It then follows that there is a continuing push to turn a school into a 'business'. As a developer that works at a SASS company working in education, we've seen the admissions departments of higher education institutions turn from a passive information providing source, to a proactive sales team with set quota's and goals. It's actually quite startling to look at the shift from the perspective of a decade ago.
Eventually though, students are going to realize that the product they're paying for isn't worth it. $200,000 in loans for a liberal arts degree is gratuitous. With that, private education will see a significant drop in enrollment and public education will explode, I presume. However, the thing I'm most afraid of is tiered pricing for universities, which I'm sure is bound to come. Want an art degree? Those are practically free. Want Computer Science degree? You're going to have to pay for that...
The moral of this story is that there needs to be a serious paradigm shift in the motivations of schools in the US soon. Motivations need to switch from income and attendance, to outcome and employability. I know personally, I have yet to be asked by my alma mater what I would change to make the university better. This lack of focus on outcome, curriculum, and education 'ability' I think is one of the biggest downfalls of private higher education.
We already have that in the UK now. An Computer Science degree is twice as expensive as an english degree and a medical degree is almost 130% more expensive than a Computer Science degree ( This is for international students ). I wonder what happens if this continues.
Eventually though, students are going to realize that the product they're paying for isn't worth it. $200,000 in loans for a liberal arts degree is gratuitous. With that, private education will see a significant drop in enrollment and public education will explode, I presume. However, the thing I'm most afraid of is tiered pricing for universities, which I'm sure is bound to come. Want an art degree? Those are practically free. Want Computer Science degree? You're going to have to pay for that...
The moral of this story is that there needs to be a serious paradigm shift in the motivations of schools in the US soon. Motivations need to switch from income and attendance, to outcome and employability. I know personally, I have yet to be asked by my alma mater what I would change to make the university better. This lack of focus on outcome, curriculum, and education 'ability' I think is one of the biggest downfalls of private higher education.