Richard Vedder: The Great College Degree Scam

Dr. Richard Vedder joins Andy Nash for a discussion over what he has termed "The Great College Degree Scam." Degree mania, as Vedder describes it, is problematic because the "number of graduates is growing faster than the number of jobs."

1:26 - Why so many end up in low skilled, low paying jobs (1 min)
3:18 - Jobs aside, is a "real education" being instilled? (1 min)
4:55 - High state ed spending, yet low economic growth (2 mins)
7:02 - Is college as a "public good" always a valid notion? (2 mins)
8:53 - Why is the cost of tuition so dramatically high? (3 mins)
11:20 - Let's eliminate public subsidies for higher ed (4 mins)

http://insideacademia.tv/episodes/2011/richard-vedder-on-the-great-college-de...

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Richard
• Vedder
• Andy
• Nash
• Inside
• Academia
• CCAP
• AEI
• Ohio
• University
• Center
• for
• College
• Affordability
• and
• Productivity

[Kyouryuu5000]

In the university system, every student is required to pay tuition, except for employees of the universities.

[mochafudgetruffle]

College used to be just for the wealthy. Over the past 50 years, the middle classes and poor have entered college in increasing numbers. College degrees don't have the same value anymore because they are far more common. Many good jobs don't really require college. Colleges are selling degree programs (such as sociology, anthropology, etc) that are essentially worthless.

[centurion180ad]

Sorry. There is no Free Market, what-so-ever.

There is no direct correlation between knowledge & production. You can’t eat a doctorate.

The cost of degree ought to be related to the amount of production it will increase in a person. If a degree imparts no production, then it ought to cost no more than a student’s room & board.

Corporations discriminate against productive people, and ought to be sued out of existance.

[centurion180ad]

America is TOTALLY fucked up.

Criminality is everywhere and into everything.

Tuition is going up & up, because it is RACKETEERING.

If a degree is worthless in economic terms, then its price should be near ZERO.

If a young person wants to be rich, they should smuggle #4 heroin or cocaine for the bankers.

If a university wants to teach real world skills, they should teach CIA sadism and torture, how to traffic black market body parts or children, how to plunder foreign oil.

[Jesusdied2pay4yrsins]

Nursing programs in Canada definitely fit this description. I've attended both LPN & RN programs, & at BEST, 15% of the classes are remotely useful/medical information. The rest of the material is essentially filler in an effort to make Nursing appear academic. Even superiors admit "it's about the money". I feel the Nursing programs I attended were a HUGE waste of my time & money. A "Bachelor of Nursing Science" degree involves almost NO science. These programs reduced my respect for nurses.

[LilRedRasta]

Oh and loans are the reason why tuition is increasing. If no one could get a loan then no one would go to college. Thus, the colleges who are dealing with less demand would be forced to lower prices to get at least some revenue. Also the would have incentive to budget, cut cost, and provide better service.

[LilRedRasta]

Oh and thankyou!! Loans from the government is a big part in why college is atcually so expensive. If every one can get an infinite amount of loans from the government, then colleges raise prices, since they know that students can borrow any amount of money to go to their school. If no one could get a loan then no one would go to college. The colleges would have to lower prices due to less demand.

[LilRedRasta]

College Is also not geared towards more right brain students. It's all geared towards left brain information decoding, structure based, students. It comes to a point where you just regurgitate facts and that makes you smart. Pshhh please.

[Beulah502]

Vedder makes and intellectually honest look at advanced education and the value of it.

Byron Larson

[cesar1963able]

It's too bad this guy looks goofy, and appears to be on drugs or something. He makes a lot of sense. But since he is not beautiful, and can't deliver a wonderful speech, people won't take him seriously.