The need for decentralized accredited education

-- By GabrielLopez - 25 Nov 2024

Introduction

Universities and colleges have ceased to focus on education in favor of administrative growth. They focus more on increasing the administrative staff and spending on services such as surveillance and security rather than improving the quality or accessibility of education. Meanwhile, spending on instruction has dropped as a percentage of spending in institutions granting bachelor's and master's degrees. Meanwhile online universities have become more affordable to attend than traditional universities in many cases. However, online universities alone are insufficient to solve this problem as many of the “best online bachelor programs” are online programs by traditional universities, thus unable to fully escape the bloat and surveillance.

Solution

The solution lies in building online universities that minimize administrative costs, value privacy, and provide higher-quality education at lower prices. According to Richard Vedder, it's possible to reduce the administrative bloat without affecting education and reduce tuition by 20% or more. An online university focused solely on providing education rather than the “arm’s race” of developing services and security could reduce costs as being online limits the proposed utility in such spending. Administrative budget reductions consequently allow for an increased budget to hire more teaching staff. This increase enables smaller class sizes, which would improve educational efficiency. The problem of school surveillance can be addressed by changing the university-student contract from being an implied contract to an explicit one with clear terms that students can inspect. By giving clear terms to students, students can judge if the university is fulfilling their duties to them such as the not tracking its students, not selling student data to outside parties, and not punishing students for publicly disagreeing with or protesting the university. Furthermore, such a contract ensures that the university’s words are not empty promises, if the university fails to uphold its promises students have legal recourse.

The case against change

The proposed solution ignores the necessity of administrative work, such as regulatory compliance. A Vanderbilt study cited regulatory compliance as accounting for between 3-11% of “higher education institutions’ nonhospital operating expenses”. Another essential function of the administrative departments is to help students with financial aid, especially as more first-generation college students have begun attending this function has become increasingly vital. The increasing expectations on colleges to provide more services and security than they did in the past serve further to justify administrative spending as a reduction could mean less future applications. Furthermore, rather than being a one-to-one replacement for traditional education, online education has been linked by Katie Lear to anxiety and depressive symptoms. Living and studying apart from peers while studying online may only increase the feeling of being alone as students miss the regular daily interactions that were once routine. Thus, the belief that a school can reduce administrative costs and have no negative consequences fails to account for student expectations and the negative effects of online education itself. Lastly, the proposal fails because it is unrealistic, expecting universities to bind themselves for no additional consideration. Thus, the proposal would leave universities understaffed for administrative issues while increasing contractual liability for no clear benefit.

Rebuttal

While some administrative staff are necessary to ensure compliance with laws, that does not forgo the possibility of administrative reduction. Assuming the high end of 11% of administrative spending is required to ensure the university is compliant with all relevant laws, this would mean that nearly 90% of spending can be reduced. Though a similar case can be made for administrative spending financial aid, a reduction may be warranted given the expected decrease in student enrollment. The idea of universities needing administrative staff to meet the scope of expected services and programs is broadly inapplicable to an online university, as such services often necessitate students being in one central location, clubs, security staff, checkpoints, gyms, etc. Thus a reduction in administrative staff can be made without reducing necessary staff and while reducing tuition and increasing accessibility. Though the possibility of isolation and depression are legitimate concerns, they can be mitigated by the student's ability to socialize outside of class, which was unavailable to many students at the time of Lear's observation due to the pandemic. Conversely, most students feel that they learn at least as well with online classes as they do with traditional classes, with some claiming to learn better online compared to conventional classrooms. Furthermore, Universities can receive additional consideration from students who are equally bound to duties that would be expected of them. Additionally ensuring students data rights aligned with the majority of students who want their data to remain private. Though some degree of data sharing seems to be acceptable to students, the extent to which current universities monitor students goes beyond what students approve of. Consequently, communicating to students that their data will not be monitored allows students to choose a university that aligns with their values, thus giving any such university an advantage over an otherwise similar competitor. Therefore, while universities may not benefit financially by binding themselves, they benefit by clarifying the expectations they have for their students and a competitive advantage over similar quality schools.

Conclusion

Thus the solution to the current problems within university are best addressed by an online University that focuses on maximizing education and minimizing costs. Cutting administrative spending allows for an increase in teaching staff while reducing tuition, making education more accessible and of higher quality. Additionally by making the implied contract of university explicit students and universities benefit. Students would now know what their rights are and have a way to enforce their rights while universities would gain an advantage over colleges that do not make the contract explicit and are able to clearly define their expectations for students. These changes, especially when taken together, would allow for a return to education and an improvement over the current system.

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