A Must Read From The Economist (This Week’s Cover Story)

Universities: The world is going to university | The Economist.

This link is to the introduction. Here is the link to the complete report.

http://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21646985-american-model-higher-education-spreading-it-good-producing-excellence

I commented on the introduction.

“”…price becomes a proxy for quality. By charging more, good universities gain both revenue and prestige…”

I am a former professor. I taught math at one of these “elite” schools so I think I can expand on this quote from the article.
Where I taught, I believe the strategy for rising in the US News Rankings, and thus being able to charge more, and rise further, etc… was the following.

Start with a solid group of good students, and a “good” reputation. Start catering to the wealthiest students with nicer dorms, food, etc.., but, most importantly, cater to their “wants” in an education, with little, if any, concern about their “needs” (=education=working and persevering).

From what I saw I believe that this strategy led to a much higher ranking of a university with much more gifted “consumers” who got a WORSE education than the previous group of “students” got.

I believe strategies similar to this has occurred at many of our lower ranked excellent schools, which are now higher ranked, just ok schools.

(To see how this strategy seemed to lead administrators absolutely insisting on an extremely dumbed down course for engineers, see “A Tale Out of School” on my blog, www.inside-higher-ed.com)