What s up guys! It s Jason here and welcome back to my YouTube channel, Do We Still Need
To Go to School Insight. American Higher Education first began in 1636. It all started at a small
school called Harvard University. At that time, the intent of the school was to prepare
students for clergy type positions, so therefore, the emphasis was generally on Greek and Latin
languages. As time went on, Harvard began preparing students for other occupations and
it didn t take long for other colleges to be established in the United States as well.
Still, only a small number of students were capable of going to college during those early
days. Those numbers rose almost every single year and it wasn t until 2011 that American
colleges met their peak attendance rate at over 20 million students across the United
States. My, my - times sure have changed! But since that time, college enrollment has
been steadily decreasing and is estimated to be down by over 2 million students now.
In this video, I ll break down the Rise and Fall of American universities and why I think
kids in the future may not need to go to college at all. By the end, you may question is higher
education even really necessary anymore.
But first you know where I m going with this right? A small favor. If you wouldn t mind
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you went to college, be sure to subscribe and hit that notification bell for new videos
each week. Thanks for doing that and now let us continue on with the Rise and Fall of American
Education.
Still Number One, But For How Long
Even though American higher education is on the downfall, we can still boast being home
to the top three universities in the world. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
or MIT, is currently ranked number one and has been for nine years straight. This year,
the US also holds the second and third place winners with Stanford and Harvard respectfully.
The problem is that out of 153 of our colleges, 112 of them have now fallen off the list of
top schools world-wide. Europe and the United Kingdom have also had many of their colleges
go down the list of top schools. The US has seen a drop in rankings in the QS World University
Rankings 2021, a trend which Ben Sowter, QS director of research, says reflects the increasing
competitiveness of the global higher education landscape . This year s installment of the
rankings sees Asian universities enjoy a greater presence among the global top 100 than at
any point in the ranking s 17-edition history. Sowter said: The American higher education
hegemony continues to diminish in the face of increasing competitiveness across the world:
a competitiveness driven by strategic funding, internationalization efforts, and strong links
between education and industry. Other countries, such as the Asia and India, are moving on
up the list. They aren t just moving up in the college rankings either. Many predict
that by 2050 the United States will be pushed down to #3 in the economy rankings globally.
China will still be number one, but a new comer is gaining ground quickly and predicted
to kick America out of its second place standing. And that new comer is India, which is predicted
to gradually take over the #2 spot. Just look at how the world has changed in the last thirty
years. Now, imagine how much it will change in the next thirty years. Technology changes
almost daily. The countries who are the leaders in technology will be the leaders of the world.
Education Online So do we still need to go to school? Physically,
maybe not not as much in the future. Due to Covid, the United States saw a major increase
in the number of colleges offering online courses so students and staff could remain
at home. These online classes have been around for some time, but not in the capacity that
it is offered now. With these online courses, students still have access to the college
campus and to direct communication with their professors. Recently there has been growing
popularity for online colleges such as Phoenix University. These colleges boast that students
can learn from anywhere and work at their own pace to achieve their degrees. But in
reality, people living in the West tend to choose schools based in the West and those
in the East prefer those based in the East, even if it is an online university. These
schools, like traditional universities, tend to be very expensive. Not many of us are willing
to pay $40,000 for a Master s degree in Social Work. There are other disadvantages to online
colleges as well. The top three of these according to Montgomery college are:
1) Online classes actually take more time to complete than the traditional classes.
2) The classes being online makes the student more apt to put off the work until the last
minute. Go figure, right? 3) Time management skills are a must to succeed
with online classes.
Is the Cost of College Worth It?
Now, back to the cost of higher education. Back in the early 1980 s public college tuition
was around $7,800 and private colleges were at a little over $17,000 a year. By 2020,
the price of a public college was over $21,000 a year and private schools had gone up to
almost $50,000 a year. I still can t believe this figure! With tuitions getting higher,
people couldn t afford to go to college. That is until they discovered student loans. Student
loans are the only solution for many people who desire to go to college. Even though these
loans help people who may not have been able to afford a higher education before, they
are incredibly hard to pay back. The average student will leave college owing at least
$29,000 in student loans today. This does not include the many private loans that are
available to students as well. The student may get a good job, but now they have a house
payment, car payment, and other bills. Add student loan payments to the mix and most
people cannot afford to make the payments at all. In fact, more than 30% of students
who graduate with student loans are currently in default and the student loan debt in the
United States is now over $1 trillion dollars! Recently, a bill was signed by President Biden
to relieve as much as $10,000 in student loan debt to each student. However, there would
be specific conditions required to qualify and even then that would still leave them
with an average of almost $20,000 to repay. Is the student debt that affects the rest
of your life even worth it anymore? Are People Overeducated For Their Jobs?
Once we overcome the challenges of where to go to college and the cost of a degree, we
can then graduate with a bachelor s degree. But where are we going to work afterwards?
Amazon.com sells a car sticker that states, I have a degree in liberal arts, do you want
fries with that. Since the beginning of higher education in the United States, there has
been a push for high school graduates to continue their education. Unfortunately, these degrees
we push for may actually be worth a lot less than they used to be. Sadly, approximately
40% of graduates with a four-year degree will become under-employed. They will be taking
jobs that only require a high school education. Due to this, college is not looking like a
good investment any longer. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, people with
a bachelor s degree had an almost 4% unemployment rate. David Soo, the chief of staff for Jobs
for the Future believes it takes most graduates a couple of years to move up in the industry.
Employers today are finding it more important for future employees to have more credentials
and job experience than excessive education. Furthermore, many jobs that required a college
degree in the past are now hiring people without degrees. These include jobs such as bank tellers,
administrative jobs, teachers and many more. Even some of the top companies are jumping
on this trend.
Certificates Instead of Degrees Companies like Google and Tesla are now taking
away the importance of a college degree on their applications. There was a time, not
too long ago, when big corporations looked at not only the degree a person had, but also
where that degree was obtained. The applicant with the highest degree from the college of
choice was the one given the job, regardless if they had any experience. However, that
is not always the case today. Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla, has said on many occasions
that you do not need a degree to work for his company. Instead, he states he is looking
for exceptional ability. He feels if you have a great record of achievement in the past,
then you will continue to do so in the future, even without a college degree. Musk has been
on record of saying, "You don't need college to learn stuff" and that knowledge is available
basically for free. He described college as a bunch of "annoying homework assignments"
and said one of the main values of attending college is students spending time with people
their own age before joining the workforce. "I think colleges are basically for fun and
to prove you can do your chores, but they're not for learning," Musk said, garnering applause
and a few laughs.
What it melts down to for companies like Tesla, is that the employers are looking for someone
with experience. The Vice President of Corporate Affairs for Google, Kent Walker, posted on
Twitter that Google was looking for employees with IT Support Specialist certifications.
He stated these certificates were equal to a four-year degree. You are probably wondering
where you can get one of these papers. Well, it is available online through Coursera for
a monthly fee of only $49! Google is even offering scholarships to help with the cost.
You do not have to have any experience in this field or any higher education to enroll
in the online program. Google claims 80% of the people completing this course received
a raise (if already employed) or (if not) received a new job. With this online program
and without a college degree, you too could get a job with this mega-tech company. With
programs like this, will traditional higher education survive?
Enrollment Down Preston Cooper with Forbes Magazine, agrees
that higher education took a severe hit in enrollment during 2020. This is partially
due to Covid 19 and the restrictions which were placed during that year. He has high
hopes, however, that the fall of 2021 will see a rise in enrollment once again for traditional
American higher education institutions. So, one has to wonder, what are the colleges and
universities going to do to counteract this decline? Universities have had a cut in federal
and state funding over the years. With this and the low enrollment, many colleges have
cut out entire programs and many staff members just to stay afloat. The FAFSA is also seeing
a decline. Approximately 14% less students filled out the online FAFSA application than
last year. Most colleges have a March 1st deadline for the FAFSA, however, to try to
increase the enrollment, a lot of schools are extending that deadline. Bill Bennet who
served as the Secretary of Education under President Reagan, once said, The higher amount
you put into higher education, at the federal level particularly, the more the price of
higher education rises. It's the dog that never catches its tail. You increase student
loans, you increase grants, you increase Pell grants, Stafford loans, and what happens?
They raise the price. Many colleges are considering raising the cost of tuition to counteract
the cuts from federal and state aid. With the high amount of default loans in America
today, this does not seem like a good answer to the problem. In fact, the cost of going
to college has gone up faster than living, medical expenses and child-care cost.
The Future of Higher Education The United States is still ranked number 1,
but with the enrollment numbers dropping as well, many will ask how long this will last.
Traditional colleges are offering online classes, some colleges are completely online, yet the
numbers still slide. So far, the hope of a rise in the coming fall enrollment with the
restrictions slowly being lifted, is not looking so good either. According to the Future of
Education panel at Harvard, future education could possibly look the same as it does today,
even as much as 25 years down the road. Besides, these universities that have been around for
a hundred years or longer are not going to change overnight. They are changing, but it
is a very slow process. If our larger higher education institutions are going to survive,
they are going to have to make these changes. They need to start offering interactional
experiences that are relative to the skills that businesses require. These skills must
pair up the student with the job. Students should only be paying colleges that successfully
give them employment afterwards. To add to that, Colleges must also find a way to lower
their cost, so that students can afford to attend without going into a life-time of debt.
Even though society tends to blame the downfall of education on rising cost, Covid, and the
pandemic restrictions, the truth is the fall started many years ago. According to Rebekkah
Anderson s 2018 article, trade schools are becoming more valuable as businesses start
seeking applicants with the right skills instead of the right degrees. Employers have started
taking on the mindset of Forget school, we need you now. We ll train you on the job.
People can learn from home, using the internet. Software engineers can be trained without
a formal university education. After all, you re paying for their expertise, not their
education. The time is now for a new version of the American education system.
Conclusion And that brings us to today. America s higher
education began as a way to train people for the jobs of the times. Somewhere along the
way, it seems they have gotten a little behind the times. Society now is completely different
than it was decades ago. Today, computers and the internet level the playing field between
those who attend university and those who didn t and you can learn key skills and knowledge
from YouTube and Masterclasses online.
So with that said, thank you so much for watching my video. There was a significant amount of
research and production that went into making this video possible. As this is a brand-new
YouTube channel I just started this year - if you enjoy videos like this, please click the
subscribe button and hit that notification bell! What do you think about the future of
American education? Do you think people should continue going to universities? Do we still
need to go to school? Let s discuss in the YouTube comments below. If you haven t seen
already, check out my video on the Rise and Fall of New York and the Rise and Fall of
LinkedIn from a CEO s perspective. As always, stay happy and healthy and stay tuned for
another episode of Company Insight next week.