Speaking today on a SXSWEdu panel in Austin, officials from a few Texas community colleges and universities said that $10,000 bachelor’s degrees are available now — and more will be within the year.
Gov. Rick Perry famously called on the development of a $10,000 degree in his State of the State address in 2011. The proposal met with criticism at the time, but Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Chairman Fred Heldenfels said it was misunderstood. “It’s not intended to be a bargain degree,” he said, offering the metaphor of a no-frills, rapid-rail route rather than an ocean-going cruise.
Called “The Evolving Role of University Systems in Higher Education,” today’s panel mostly focused on efforts to lower the cost of college. It was moderated by Texas A&M System Chancellor John Sharp and featured Heldenfels, Texas Higher Education Commissioner Raymund Paredes, and two pairs of university and community college leaders actively collaborating: Texas A&M-San Antonio President Maria Ferrier and Alamo Colleges Chancellor Bruce Leslie, and Texas A&M-Commerce President Dan Jones and South Texas College‘s Chief Academic Officer Juan Mejia.
Leslie said that Perry’s push has led to an increased emphasis on cooperation between community colleges and four-year universities. The result, he said, is a degree that meets Perry’s target — and is even less expensive. At Texas A&M-San Antonio, Ferrier said, a bachelor’s in information technology with an emphasis on cyber security will cost about $9,700.
They aren’t stopping there. “This is a start,” she said. “We are looking at other programs that absolutely meet the needs of the region, state and the country and that will really yield a job at the end of that degree.”
Jones and Mejia anticipate that starting in 2013, a bachelor’s of applied science in organizational leadership will be available for under $10,000 in South Texas.
Other cost-lowering strategies in the works, Jones said, include what he called “shredded e-textbooks,” electronic books that can be broken up according to what content is needed and downloaded at low cost. He also expressed interest in competency-based learning — allowing students to advance once they have proven mastery of a subject rather than requiring them to sit through a predetermined amount of classes for course credit.
Like many of these initiatives, Jones said, a competency-based system will not work without buy-in and support from business and industry.
The need to lower college costs is a particular priority in Texas, Paredes said. Sixty percent of students in the state’s K-12 pipeline are classified as poor, and in the last session, for the first time ever, the Legislature made cuts to the state’s primary need-based financial aid program, known as TEXAS Grants.
Of the $10,000 degrees, Paredes told the Tribune that this means the mission has been started, not accomplished. “We have a proof of concept,” he said.
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University of California Berkeley now the most expensive public higher education in USA: more expensive than Harvard. UC Berkeley prefers born abroad and affluent out of state applicants to California applicants. UC Berkeley Chancellor Birgeneau’s ($450,000 salary) recruits born abroad and affluent out of state $50,600 tuition students that displace qualified Californians from public university; spends $7,000,000 + for OE consultants to do his senior management’s work (prominent East Coast university accomplishing same at 0 cost); pays ex Michigan governor $300,000 a couple for lectures tuition to Return on Investment (ROI) drops below top 10; QS ranking below top ten: NCAA places basketball program on probation: absence institutional control. Chancellor Birgeneau’s fiscal track record is dismal indeed.
Birgeneau would like to blame the politicians, since they stopped giving him every dollar asked for, & the state legislators do share some responsibility for the financial crisis. But not in the sense he means. Every year Birgeneau would request a budget increase, the timid President, Regents would agree to it, and the legislature would provide. The hard questions were avoided by all concerned, & the inefficiencies just piled up to $150 million.
It’s not that Birgeneau was unaware that there were, in fact, waste during his 8 year reign. Faculty & staff raised issues with Birgeneau however, when they failed to see relevant action taken, they stopped. Finally, Birgeneau engaged expensive ($7,000,000 +) OE consultants to tell him what he should have known as a leader or been able to find out from the bright, engaged people. (Prominent east-coast University accomplishing same at 0 costs)
We are sympathetic to the frustration of Chancellors running their campuses with declining state money. Cal. has been badly damaged by Birgeneau’s leadership.. Good people are loosing their jobs. Cal’s senior leadership is either incompetent or culpable
Recommendation: You never want a crisis to go to waste. Increasing Cal’s budget is not enough; Birgeneau continues making gaudy expenditures. Honorably retire Cal. Chancellor Birgeneau
Email opinions to uc board of regents marsha.kelman@ucop.edu
(The author with 35 years’ consulting experience, has taught at University of California Berkeley, where he observed the culture & the way senior management work)
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