A friend of mine used to be an enthusiastic recruiter for his University. He now quotes the Raven, "Never more!" He will recruit graduate students, but no undergrads.
My friend has a long tenure at his Uni. He says he still loves it, but it has changed. He claims he has no problem with the Uni adopting the "business model", he say his objection is simply a disaffection with the "maximum profit model".
So what has changed? Nowadays, his Uni, like so many, has taken the position that it will happily put 400-500 students in a class, because all those students are paying tuition. If half those students are out of state, that single 3-credit-hour class will pull in a bit over 1.1 million dollars- not counting fees!!
Fees?
Yes, in addition to tuition, now Unis charge fees on TOP of tuition.
If there are but 40 students in a class, the class grosses just over $90k, and if a typical load is 2 classes, then the prof brings in 180K per term *2 terms = $360k!!If the teacher is an adjunct, he/she is might be only getting $3-4k per course!! Pretty good profit, eh?
Of course the quality of instruction could be expected to be much lower when you pack in 500 students. The chances on a prof calling on any given student is... well 45 classes in a semester is the MOST we ever have, so if we round to 50, and the prof calls on 10 students per class (1 call-on every 5 min) then you would be called upon ONCE per semester!! Of course if only 20 (out of the 500) students each class had questions, and the prof spent 3 min answering each question, then there is NO time for instruction.
Ever think about calling the roll for a class of 500?? At one name every 6 secs- your 50-min is already gone!! Yep, scary.
Even in a more modest class of only 50 students, and half the students had a question, and each questions took 2 mins to answer, then again, NO instruction time whatsoever!
Wow, if students ever figured this out, and the prof only tested on what he/she covered in the class, then the exams would be really, really easy!!!
Well, besides paying profs, my friend says that the Uni must also pay for buildings, parking, utilities, libraries, and administrators, lots of administrators.
But what about dormitories for students? Ah, another money maker! But we'll save that for another blog... maybe!
P.S. My friend is such a big hypocrite!!! Just this past week he met with two potential undergrads and their families... and he recruited the stew out of them. He just couldn't stop himself. Is there a 12-step program for this??
My friend has a long tenure at his Uni. He says he still loves it, but it has changed. He claims he has no problem with the Uni adopting the "business model", he say his objection is simply a disaffection with the "maximum profit model".
So what has changed? Nowadays, his Uni, like so many, has taken the position that it will happily put 400-500 students in a class, because all those students are paying tuition. If half those students are out of state, that single 3-credit-hour class will pull in a bit over 1.1 million dollars- not counting fees!!
Fees?
Yes, in addition to tuition, now Unis charge fees on TOP of tuition.
If there are but 40 students in a class, the class grosses just over $90k, and if a typical load is 2 classes, then the prof brings in 180K per term *2 terms = $360k!!If the teacher is an adjunct, he/she is might be only getting $3-4k per course!! Pretty good profit, eh?
Of course the quality of instruction could be expected to be much lower when you pack in 500 students. The chances on a prof calling on any given student is... well 45 classes in a semester is the MOST we ever have, so if we round to 50, and the prof calls on 10 students per class (1 call-on every 5 min) then you would be called upon ONCE per semester!! Of course if only 20 (out of the 500) students each class had questions, and the prof spent 3 min answering each question, then there is NO time for instruction.
Ever think about calling the roll for a class of 500?? At one name every 6 secs- your 50-min is already gone!! Yep, scary.
Even in a more modest class of only 50 students, and half the students had a question, and each questions took 2 mins to answer, then again, NO instruction time whatsoever!
Wow, if students ever figured this out, and the prof only tested on what he/she covered in the class, then the exams would be really, really easy!!!
Well, besides paying profs, my friend says that the Uni must also pay for buildings, parking, utilities, libraries, and administrators, lots of administrators.
But what about dormitories for students? Ah, another money maker! But we'll save that for another blog... maybe!
P.S. My friend is such a big hypocrite!!! Just this past week he met with two potential undergrads and their families... and he recruited the stew out of them. He just couldn't stop himself. Is there a 12-step program for this??
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