> Skip to content
FEATURED:
  • The Evolution of Race in Admissions
Sign In
  • News
  • Advice
  • The Review
  • Data
  • Current Issue
  • Virtual Events
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Career Resources
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Career Resources
Sign In
  • News
  • Advice
  • The Review
  • Data
  • Current Issue
  • Virtual Events
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Career Resources
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Career Resources
  • News
  • Advice
  • The Review
  • Data
  • Current Issue
  • Virtual Events
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Career Resources
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Career Resources
Sign In
ADVERTISEMENT
Innovations-Small Icon

Innovations: Richard Vedder on the Ills of Higher Education

Insights and commentary on higher education.

  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Show more sharing options
Share
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Copy Link URLCopied!
  • Print

Richard Vedder on the Ills of Higher Education

By  Frank Donoghue
February 25, 2011

Richard Vedder, a retired economist from Ohio University and fellow Innovations blogger, makes a radical, macroeconomic argument about why college costs so much in what is perhaps his most influential book,

We’re sorry. Something went wrong.

We are unable to fully display the content of this page.

The most likely cause of this is a content blocker on your computer or network. Please make sure your computer, VPN, or network allows javascript and allows content to be delivered from c950.chronicle.com and chronicle.blueconic.net.

Once javascript and access to those URLs are allowed, please refresh this page. You may then be asked to log in, create an account if you don't already have one, or subscribe.

If you continue to experience issues, contact us at 202-466-1032 or help@chronicle.com

Richard Vedder, a retired economist from Ohio University and fellow Innovations blogger, makes a radical, macroeconomic argument about why college costs so much in what is perhaps his most influential book, Going Broke By Degrees: Why College Costs Too Much (2004). Indeed, he goes beyond a critique of the contemporary college by wondering if we need universities at all.

He muses: “Are universities vital? Perhaps, but the process of learning and discovery existed before they came into being during the late Middle Ages, and it would continue, albeit perhaps in a less efficient fashion, if they ceased to exist. As universities become even more costly, they would do well to remember that they do not have a monopoly ton the creation and maintenance of our human and cultural capital.” He describes a vicious circle of funding and spending that dovetails with Jackson Toby’s central argument.

It works something like this: Tuition at virtually every institution goes up; this makes political pressures build to “do something” about the increase; Congress then expands guaranteed student-loan programs, which in turn increases demand by putting more students in a position to afford college; and then colleges are able to raise tuition further.

He challenges what is perhaps the sacred statistic cited by economists who defend college: namely that the holder of a college degree can expect to earn twice as much over the course of his or her lifetime than a high-school graduate. That gap narrows considerably, Vedder argues, when one takes into account the soaring cost of college and the debt burden that usually accompanies it.

In this line of argument, he’s aided by the recent, certain-to-be-controversial book by Richard Arum and Joseph Roksa, Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses, which argues that an enormous percentage of students graduate from college knowing less than they did when they entered, and having duller critical thinking skills as well. Why, then, Vedder asks in a recent blog post, should we support the “hedonistic experience we call higher education”?

ADVERTISEMENT

And Vedder takes almost all American colleges and universities to task for drifting away from their core mission of educating students. He notes that universities “increasingly do other things not related to the previous purposes of higher education. They hire administrators of one kind or another at twice the rate they hire teachers. They are in the food and lodging business. They are in the entertainment business, with sports events, recreational facilities, and concerts.”

To be sure, there are elements of the old-school conservative critique of academia in Vedder’s book as well: He scoffs at research (in the humanities, for example) that yield no immediate, practical results. He’s skeptical of tenure but stops short of calling its elimination because, as he wryly admits, “as an outspoken faculty member who has taken an number of stands unpopular in the university community over the years” he has benefited from the security that tenure provides.

But these complaints are not at the center of the book’s argument. His central thesis is that “the arguments for public subsidies of higher education are, at the very best, highly debatable. A better than decent case can be made that perhaps government should, in general, largely get out of the higher-education business, ending state subsidies and tax advantages for private donations.”

This stands as a stark dismissal of the idea that higher education should be a social entitlement. Next time I’ll address what he proposes as an alternative.

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
  • Explore
    • Get Newsletters
    • Letters
    • Free Reports and Guides
    • Blogs
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle Store
    • Find a Job
    Explore
    • Get Newsletters
    • Letters
    • Free Reports and Guides
    • Blogs
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle Store
    • Find a Job
  • The Chronicle
    • About Us
    • DEI Commitment Statement
    • Write for Us
    • Talk to Us
    • Work at The Chronicle
    • User Agreement
    • Privacy Policy
    • California Privacy Policy
    • Site Map
    • Accessibility Statement
    The Chronicle
    • About Us
    • DEI Commitment Statement
    • Write for Us
    • Talk to Us
    • Work at The Chronicle
    • User Agreement
    • Privacy Policy
    • California Privacy Policy
    • Site Map
    • Accessibility Statement
  • Customer Assistance
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise With Us
    • Post a Job
    • Advertising Terms and Conditions
    • Reprints & Permissions
    • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
    Customer Assistance
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise With Us
    • Post a Job
    • Advertising Terms and Conditions
    • Reprints & Permissions
    • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
  • Subscribe
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Institutional Subscriptions
    • Subscription & Account FAQ
    • Manage Newsletters
    • Manage Your Account
    Subscribe
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Institutional Subscriptions
    • Subscription & Account FAQ
    • Manage Newsletters
    • Manage Your Account
1255 23rd Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037
© 2023 The Chronicle of Higher Education
  • twitter
  • instagram
  • youtube
  • facebook
  • linkedin