Source: Town Hall
by Victor Davis Hanson
“Elite higher education in America — long unquestioned as globally preeminent — is facing a perfect storm. Fewer applicants, higher costs, impoverished students, collapsing standards, and increasingly politicized and mediocre faculty reflect a collapse of the university system. The country is waking up to the reality that a bachelor’s degree no longer equates with graduates being broadly educated and analytical. Just as often, they are stereotyped as pampered, largely ignorant, and gratuitously opinionated. No wonder polls show a drastic loss of public respect for higher education and, specifically, a growing lack of confidence in the professoriate. … from 1980 to 2020, room, board, and tuition increased by 170 percent. Skyrocketing costs cannot be explained by inflation alone, given that campuses have lightened faculty teaching loads while expanding administrative staff.” (05/03/24)