Why are American 🎓 Universities so 💰 Expensive? - VisualPolitik EN 

The real bad thing about American universities. The limit of how much they can charge You pay an extra $1,000 for a bowling alley and diversity classes rather than the Computer engineering you went for

Pro tip: let the us do the research and just hack it!

Here in Germany research is mainly done at institutes like the Frauenhofer Institute. And the Problem why there are so few tech giants in Europe is more down to the somewhat hostile environment for startups. So Europe is basically already separating education and research which is the reason why our universities are so low on these rankings but are still very good in their domain of teaching students.

Another factor is that U.S. public research universities heavily court international students - some of whom come from wealthier families and can pay full price, but attend on student visas with the expectation that they will pursue careers in their home countries (not in the United States) . . . so paper authorship and prestigious grants (the social clout of research) disproportionately goes to domestic American students while in some cases, international students do more of the unglamorous work.

*Problem 1:* *Bureaucracy.* *Problem 2:* *An over-emphasis on sports* *Problem 3:* *To many fills.* *Problem 4:* *Loss of public funding.*

The universities don’t make the U.S. business and freedom does, along with the military projection. The U.S is actually rather not very educated and doesn’t really pride itself on intellectualism. There are slivers of very prestigious research institutions, but it’s the ability to take these things to market that makes America prosperous

I went to a state school in the US for my bachelor's in history. I was told any degree will do 🤦 and you'll work doing your passion. Foolish I know, but I worked a full time job, while going to school full time and joined the army reserve to pay for it. Took me 5 years to do it debt free, but I made it. Today I have a home in California and a good job, but my degree had little to do with it. I got my job from work experience and military background with little to do with my degree...it may have helped a bit, but it was not worth it. The path to the middle class is not rooted in college these days...Bernie means well, but more people with more degrees devalues the degree and I have to say the degree didn't mean much in the first place. Unless you're pursuing a STEM field, you're quite literally wasting time. My advice: work hard and go after certificates for whatever field you're interested in. Don't fund these diploma mill state schools and "prestigious" universities. And be realistic about paying tuition... If you don't have a plan to pay up front or you aren't going to be a doctor or something capable of paying off debt later, don't even go for it. You are responsible for your own debt, not society. I made a mistake going for my bachelor's, but I at least had the foresight and work ethic to pay my bill up front.

This is not the best time for anyone to be left out when going for digital assets

Community colleges: H E L L O

You forgot about how the USA has been divesting from universities since Regan. Over half of the tuition increases are for university administrators to help fundraise to stay competitive. Since every university, even state universities are doing this, they have to spend more and more money to fight for the crumbs of the Ivey leagues investors. We spend money on sports arenas and auditoriums to make investors happy, while neglecting the actual reason people need to go university, education. The USA just needs a department of research and department of recreation, so universities can just be schools.

In countries like Germany for example there are dedicated research institutes which are mostly independent from any university. For example the Frauenhofer Institutes, the Max Planck Institutes or the German Aerospace Center (DLR) etc. who all are exclusively dedicated to research and have Institutes all over Germany.

One point you didn't mention is in Europe regulates entry into University with test scores, while America doesn't. Instead it pretty much lets any idiot to go to college, just a lower tiered school. This has the unfortunate effect that lots of poor quality students go into debt for degrees that are never completed and lots of good students get degrees that are pretty useless. In my life, I've seen a lot of really smart, college-decreed receptionists and baristas.

The worst thing of it all is that a lot of student loans can't be forgiven. This means if someone can't pay the interest on their loans they can't declare bankruptcy and may even get prison time if they don't pay up.

You should've mentioned how much of the cost is because of useless levels of administrators in US universities that don't do research, and don't teach, they just suck $ out of the system.

Having gone through the US college system in one of the better schools in my field I can say that the education quality is very mixed, especially for undergrads. Many of the professors are horrible teachers, the only reason why the graduates do well is because they were top students to start with. The best a degree from a top university can buy you is a good starting job. If you can’t get that with your degree, it is not worth the debt at all.

I’d say that another big factor is universities using Grant Money they get from the government to add stuff that “Looks Pretty” but doesn’t have any educational value. For instance, I highly doubt that a Rock Climbing wall helps students with their classes. Same goes for Luxury Booths in the football stadium and many other facilities that “Look nice”. But Universities add them anyways to attract students. And guess who has to pay for the maintenance of these facilities... Yep, the Students. So they simply increase tuition fees to make up for it.

"Then the idiot who praises, with enthusiastic tone; All centuries but this, and every country but his own" Not going to lie. As an American I was very concerned about student debt. We always hear how "we are saddling our future under a burden they will never escape from" however I never really appreciated the flip side of that and how it is this model that not only gets us the best universities in the world but allows us to be on the edge of pretty much every new technology imaginable. After a lot of thought I have to agree that college is not for everyone but at the same time the stigma of not going to college can be pretty steep. That's why I think what should be done is 1 year of college which the government pays for/helps subsidize followed by 1 mandatory year of apprenticeship. Basically for one yeah you can be an apprentice/intern to literally any job to give you a chance to see what that trade is like and maybe even learn that college is not for you and after that you can either return to college for 3 years or continue your apprenticeship. While I do agree that having a college degree is important I believe we as a society have overemphasized the importance of it and that we should be offering more opportunities to find our futures without the massive student debt.

Because they're a status symbol before anything else.

I am South Africans, I went to University for free and I didn't even finish. Yes I earn more that $40k.

I was supposed to be an international student from Jamaica to the US, however I decided just to attend school in Jamaica for this main reason: I AM NOT GONNA PAY OVER $40,000 USD FOR A DAMN OVERSEAS SCHOOL WHERE I CAN PAY LESS THAN $1500 USD IN MY OWN COUNTRY. That's a huge gap right there.

What about the Canadian model? For Canadians and reaidents, the colleges there are much more expensive than they are in Europe, but much cheaper than in the US. A nominal college would have tuitions fees price tag at an arbitrary 20k USD per year, but the state would be paying a big deal of that for the citizens and residents. This allows for private in universities to exist and charge well, but the tuition fees wouldn't be too painful for for the students.

Worst part is universities are charging more in tuition while simultaneously keeping their instructors on adjunct status so they can't achieve tenure. I know university professors that have to bartend during the summers to pay their bills.

a lot of why ppl drops out of college their first few years is because they're forced to take the same high school classes they just took in high school instead of letting students jump right into the core classes they're signing up for, i was one of the ones scratching my head, why did i go to high school if i have to take these classes over again, got bored with the classes and didn't take them seriously, so i just studied what i wanted on the side while making average grades in my classes in my opinion, i think the entire education system needs re-structured. high school classes should be treated like intro classes for college, and college classes should have 3 phases, phase one is introduction to your degree program that teaches the basics of your field, phase two are your core classes where you learn the information you need to learn to move on to your advanced classes, and phase 3 is where you learn the advanced stuff that lands you into your masters and Ph.Ds i mean, this bullshit where you have classes that doesn't belong in your career field is just money grabs, just imagine how much cheaper degree programs could be if we cut out the bullshit classes and reduce the number of classes required to get degrees in the first place, the way i see it, a masters should only cost you at a max of $23,000, not $50,000-$130,000 a lot of these costs are driven by military service programs that used to offer $50,000 if you served your full 8 years, then you got basic college training for free while in the service on top of that, so now, college has taken advantage of that hiked the price up where they only want ppl in the service so they can pocket free money

I'm in Slovenia, my college was free and in addition I got about 150€ per month from the state as a reward for not dropping out. So instead of student debt i graduated with student savings 👍

"Because they spend most of it on meat mountains running into each other."

Can you guys make a video about the possibility of the independence of Cape Town in South Africa? I've only learned about it recently but it seems like they're getting more and more traction and it sounds feasible for independence in legal terms

Problem in indian universities is that if you get any degree from it despite the cost you will be unemployed or get a low paid job (except few)

Lol. Kinda ironic how some tech companies started by college dropouts required potential employees to have college degrees

The US is an example of a conundrum where it is the wealthiest country in the world, but at the same time, the poorest population live worse than third world countries. It is mind boggling that people cant call an ambulance in fear of the extortionate bills and students wont be able to meet their potential because higher education is built to benefit the rich from every angle.

So study in Europe and do a Phd in the US.

One detail the program did not exploited enough, is the growing bureaucracy from any fashionable interest in the media. Some have up to 7 race, gender, trans-gender, hyper-race, or whatever fraction in of the society becomes fancy. With all its diversity, the human society does not need 11 Directors for every single segment contained within.

I graduated with 90k in student loans. It took 10 years with most of it working two jobs to pay off. It was a social studies degree. I work at a bank.

We in Europe care for our people.

Important to understand, elite research in many European countries is done at public institutes associated but not part of universities and therefore don't show in rankings. Germany for example has the Max-Plank-Society which at least when I checked a few years back ranked ABOVE Harvard in terms of publications and patents.

In Australia my daughter just got her first HECS-HELP loan account summary. 1 year = $10,000 AUD. Ouch!! The only good thing I can say is that these loans are financed by the Australian government and only become payable when you are earning a wage (as a small % of that wage). If you never earn enough through your working life to pay off the loan the loan gets written off.

Some points that you forgot to mention most of international students are on scholarship and grants. Also the fact that college sports has much to do in terms of increasing tuitions. If you look at the highest paid state employee in most states it would be a coach of a varsity football or basketball team.

Why are the thumbnails high quality? 😂😂😂

This is why I will never go to a university college. Go to a tech or trade school, it's a 1/5 of the price

The ranking is very US centric as you measure research activities in order to judge the quality of the university. In countries where research is seperated the university have less focus on this topic, but focus on education. Therefore also the government expenditure in this sector requires to add up this two organsisations. Reseach labs such as Fraunehofer and the universities. Doing so the eupopean numbers are not differnt than the US ones- in PPP often even higher. And yes not financed by the students, which is an odd concept.

Most students don’t actually pay the sticker price for college in the US. That’s what this video misses completely

America needs to stop spending billions defending Europe. Where does most of the medical and pharmaceutical R&D come from? America. America spends trillions footing the bill for defense and healthcare innovation where the rest of the world benefits. I love how they act so superior with their “free” health and education on the backs of America.

Even so your Can't go to universities means Americans can go to community college which is good here in india if you go to a average college most of them are theoretical orientated and 75 percentage attendance.

Thank u sir, for make this video. I was waiting for this video

Have a gander at the Aussie model. It's essentially an Income Share Agreement paid by the Uni and the Government. You don't start paying anything until you start earning over $50k. It starts at 1% of your income pa and increases as you earn. I think max is 10% over $100k. You don't even notice the deductions from your pay

I don't agree with the premise that American universities are better than, say, German universities. Those rankings are politics and the prestige comes with it, not with the quality of education.

I believe the wise thing to be on every wise individuals list is to invest in different streams of income not to depend on the government to generate money.

As someone who finished one bachelor in Linguistics in Brazil, and is currently failing to get a second in Computer Science in Germany, even though here the university is "free" I still struggle quite a lot to pay the semester fees (every 6 months I have a month with double expenses, but visa limitations impede me from earning enough for that), all the while in Brazil I have never ever needed to pay anything, plus could still lived confortably while working 6 hours a day the entire week. Case in point, in Germany the course is "full time" (a class in the morning and another near the evening, impeding me from finding a good job in the small town I live in), while in Brazil it was only during the morning, afternoon, or evening, depending on the bachelor. Here teachers also have a lot of freedoms how to manage their courses and can get away with not offering any classes during the pandemic, while also failing most of the class in the finals. In contrast, in Brazil the only exam I've seen being remade (for failing more than 20% of the class), was reviewed by the course's counsil, while in Germany you have to make a petition with the entire student body to have something similar happen.

Why are British universities so far ahead of other European countries? After the US it's the next education power house.

The first country, where the lowest classes (not only elite and middle class) went to the college, was the USSR.

I attended engineering school in the mid 70's. Our annual tuition was a bit over $5k. My starting salary when I graduated was a bit over $20k. So, my starting salary was about 4 times my annual tuition. The same school has a 2022 tuition of about $80k. But graduates today, while certainly well paid, do not get 4*$80k = $320k starting salaries. When I wander around my old school's campus, I see buildings that are way fancier than when I was there... Three-story atriums, a gorgeous athletic center with dozens of exercise machines, etc. When I was there in the 70's, my department's building had been built during WW II in a hurry and was 30 years old and pretty run down. What passed for an athletic center was a dump, we had free-weights and the exercise mats were worn out with horsehair coming out of cracks in the plastic covering. Also, in those days, professors were paid less than their industry counterparts with similar qualifications. Afterall, they got the summer off, they got to go on sabbatical every few years, etc. Now, professors are treated like rockstars. They are paid as much, or more, than their industry counterparts... And are free to have ownership and management roles in private companies (That was forbidden back in the day.) And yet, for all the expensive fancy buildings and rockstar professors, I don't think the students today are getting a better education than we did back in the 70's. But, of course, universities never compete on price and students keep applying and, somehow, coming up with the money for tuition. It seems unsustainable but it also seems there is no elasticity in the demand.

A voucher system would be the best. You choose the univeristy and the state pays exactly what is needed. Loans create debt and "free education'' is not in fact free, the state takes more money than needed and it makes you think it's free. There is nothing free. There is only taxation.

When everyone has a degree the value of that degree goes down.

You forgot the ETH Zürich in all those rankings! A Swiss universtity who is in the top 10 of the world by most standarts

I wish there was a clearer, more pragmatic separation between Education and Research. They aren't the same and shouldn't be treated as such or handled by the same institutions. But I also question if academic pursuits shouldn't be detached from classic education. Really, there should be three main paths after school. Learning practical skills for physical labour like welding or electrical engineering, "Advanced Education" for various fields (Business, Accounting, History etc.) and Academia for classic research and writing thesis etc. They all need their own venues and channels.

You forgot to mention the generally different K-12 system, which is extremely important in a discussion of university costs. European countries, at least to the best of my knowledge, in general tend to offer two different career tracks into which students are segregated during their K-12 education. One track being toward university, for those deemed intellectually capable, and the other being for trade/technical schools for those that are believed to be better suited for these roles. In the US every single high school student is encouraged, and outright told to, attend university because that is believed to be the only path to success. Trade and technical schools aren’t even considered, and are simply thought to be for rejects. This artificially spikes demand for university education in the US while, conversely, lowering it in Europe. The European model is clearly superior, because most people genuinely do not need university education, and America is severely lacking in trade/technical workers.

My mbbs fees in India : 100$/year And my college is in top 5 clg in our country Had I taken scholarship given by Central govt. I would be earning from my college.😂😂 They were giving about 200$/year because our fees is already very low.

These days most people leave university more stupid than they went in. School leavers are better off going straight into a job and learning on the job.

Actually, i cannot talk about all european universities, but in germany Universities do research. However, the research facilities are not tied to the Universities themselves but instead operate as independent entities with a different funding system. This is why even our research-strong universities rank low - because their research facilities are not part of the university.

Of course there other solutions. Like putting caps on How high the tuition can be.

Nothing wrong with student debt , if u want to be an engineer or a dr , u can afford to pay back your student loans . Here in Australia, you only pay back your student loan if you gain a job paying higher than the adverage salary

If you want someone to remember your creation, make it expensive

Met a guy in the Navy who claimed he had a gig, when he got out, loading bales of cocaine on vessels in a Colombian mangrove. He said he was wholly confident he could, easily, bank-roll his way through 4+ years at the University of his choice. ¡Gracias a Dios por los consumidores estadounidenses de cocaína!

A quick look online shows two of the top three universities in the world are European, Oxford at one, and Cambridge at three. In Dubai the most prestigious school is the British school, the same in Abu Dhabi where the top school is British. There are also Australian and Canadian educational establishments there, too. The common factor is the English language, not some exclusive US element, excellent though I am sure that the American system is.

Because America treats everything as business. For them, profit is everything.....

In Hungary the goverment limiting the tuition free spaces so much. You have to be an excelent student in high school to have a chance and pass several high level subjects at the final exam of high school. If you want to get your diploma you have to take at least a mid level english exam which most student can't pass. And not to mention, most people who finished their studies can't get a job. You have to pay for your studies but the tax, accomodation, inflation, overall prices are so high where people have to choose between go to work and drop out, or student loan.

Canada is very expensive too but we DON'T forgive the debt and we don't have the population base to make our universities thrive as much as the USA... I spent five years in post-secondary school and it hasn't helped me one bit, every job I've ever had I could have gotten without the college on my resumé, I wish I had have traveled Europe or Asia with the time and money instead.

The universities of old Europe used to be more honest about the privileges that went with wealth. Once the nobility decided that it would be better to be able to read, write and count than to leave all that to the churchmen (who had somehow ended up owning a quarter of the land) they received special consideration. At Oxford, Cambridge and Dublin, sons of the nobility and royal family paid 4 times the normal fees. In return, they had no need to attend lectures or take exams and were awarded an MA after two years. But few stayed that long, and they would rarely go into business or public administration. They concentrated on having a good time away from their parents. "Gentlemen" who paid twice the fee could avoid college but not university exams, and got their BA in 3 instead of 4 years but still had to wait another 3 years for the MA exam. Boys who had gone to Eton or Winchester had exclusive right of admission to King's College or New College and were also exempt from university exams. At the other end, clever but poor kids like Isaac Newton had to do menial tasks around the college and had their fees paid for them. All these groups were easily distinguishable by different quality gowns and headgear, much as we can today by designer clothes and sports cars. Once oral exams (in Latin) gave way to written papers, there was a thriving trade by the 18th century in writing MD and probably other theses for students who could afford to buy them ready made. These official privileges faded out in the UK over the late 18th and early 19th centuries, but the rich can still somehow sail through. In mainland Europe the French revolution and Napoleon's conquests swept away these overt relics of the "ancien regime," but the US has covertly retained them.

I have studied chemistry in a major european city. Tuition fees were low, everybody was looking educated students but many profs were not eager to educate. To them, it was something like a punishment that kept them away from research. There was plenty of despotism, abuse and insanity. The farest excursion I ever attended while I was at this university was to two day trip a steelmill located at the other end of my country. My mental health declined and I was struggling the first years after graduation. Moreover, I drifted from chemistry as I couldn´t get a job. The state should control universities more to ensure that only people who are able to and who want it, are allowed to teach.

Because.. Murica?

Universities in America (I don't know if it's different elsewhere. if you went to a university outside America, please share, I want to hear your experience). Don't do a good job at preparing you for working in the real world. I got 2 degrees from a decently prestigious business school, however, that didn't really propel my career. Networking helped me land my first two real jobs. At my most recent job I was giving the task of organizing and constructing a new IT department in our company (we exclusively outsourced everything until then). We didn't know anyone who could do database administration so we put out a job posting. We got 9 replies in 3 days. We decided to interview them all and it became obvious that we could really connect with only 3 of them. 1 had an associates degree, 1 had a bachelor's from someplace I can't remember, but the third guy was about to graduate from Cornell with a degree in database management. We decided to give them a second interview and during the interview, we'll administer a fairly because coding question. The two guys from the regular schools thought it was fun. The ivy league dude.... He didn't recognize it at first, started sweating, and wasn't able to solve it at all. I'm sure Cornell has some great IT professors, however, they obviously didn't really connect with this guy. It was kind of embarrassing. He was still a nice guy overall. We went with the guy who had the bachelor degree from one of our local Ohio schools. Se schools are working on getting students more working experience whole they're still there, but there is still a long way to go before those schools come close to the worth we have to spend on them.

American here, we get 2 free years of college if we live in a civilized state like California. And we even have programs that pay for our bachelors as well if we transfer from community college maintain our gpa. I’m about to complete my finance degree without getting any student loans.

Maybe it makes more sense to be a grad student at a prestigious university, than an undergrad. So that you participate in research, and maybe you go on to start a company. (Unless you're interested in networking with other bright students as an undergraduate.) I've taken or started a few of the undergraduate MIT and Yale courses available on RU-vid. The professors are names you know (Gensler, Schiller,...). The lectures are well thought out, presented well. But from what I've seen you don't learn any more then you would at a state university. The teachers at a state university and branch campuses, whether they be researchers or not, teach the courses just as well. You're not missing out.

Something surprised they didn't touch on was how those student loans don't act like regular loans. You pretty much can't default on those loans no matter what. My aunt is having her wages garnered because she refused to pay back her loans after attempting to file for bankruptcy. Since those loans are backed by the federal government, the schools will be paid no matter what. If the schools had to eat those loans people fail to pay back. They may be more inclined to reduce tuition. However, I we'll probably come up with some other convoluted way to "solve" this problem. "modern problems require modern solutions".

Conveniently left out Oxford, Cambridge, LSE, Imperial etc the consistently highest ranking Universities in the world, based in Europe!!

bro, that cutting is weird... Weird cuts and so fast... Content is great btw

When he says "we are gonna look at that right now..." 😇😇😇...

Bro. Having the government pay for school doesn’t make the school free. It just passes the costs to others. Which means higher taxes. Don’t you know anything about economics. The issue isn’t funding, the issue is the costs and inefficiencies

Regarding the rankings, if you look at the ranking of degrees (such as bester master in finance or in mathematics ) you will find much more European universities

It's all well and good to fund research but if you can't teach people how to do the job then what's the point? Also love how you missed out on British Universities like Oxford and Cambridge. One of the most widely used Covid-19 shots was Oxford's Astrazeneca which is being made at cost so that more have access to it. That is an achievement in and of itself.

I find it interesting that VisualPolitik did not really talk about the driver of high tuition cost in the United States. That’s government subsidies!

why couldn't the us take some budget out of the military to fund university?

Well according to this video, if research is what drives technological advancements, and most research comes from universities, and funding for those research comes from university students, then Corporations benefit from universities more than the students themselves.

My problem is cost of tuition, and the fraternity/witchcraft system. Too many universities want "Scorpion", "Big Bang Theory" people dictating who can get in..Holding back some people's only way out of poverty and homelessness for families and women in wedlock situations, using techniques,similar to Nazism and The S.S., I never was a fan. If a christian or jew or desiring to reconcil with those congregations these committees continually break The First Amendment by voting and tag lining what one's religion is, which is hersay, plus, even if one tries to make amends or atone, by stocking former populars, athletes, and jocks and bullies, it is also a form of lying to religious institutions, as well as oppressive, suppression, and repression stereotyping of non - dorks, geeks, and nerds by pop culture social tropes.

Government guaranteed student loans is the reason why our universities are so expensive. Universities are accepting non qualified students majoring in fields that most employers do not need. Our government should have never guaranteed loans to students.

Nice work

I feel like the education is not only education but also business, the university is the supplier and student is buyer.

9:58 you remembered Coimbra University

frankly, in terms of the research alone, they are worth the price tag in a national sense. though what I would suggest is to stop telling every kid to go to a four year university, and instead place more importance on two year tech schools or community colleges and having those be covered by the state the same way k-12 is

What about ETHZ, the Swiss Institute of Technology in Zurich? It is in the top 10 and nearly free. Also, why is there no ranking normed on tuition fees? the rankings would look quite different...

A few items to correct. 1. In the U.S. what your degree is in carries much more weight than what school you attended too. Only at the top Ivy League level does that really matter. Your Collegiate GPA and your degree are overall much more important. More prestigious schools have internships which allow better access to certain higher paying jobs, but what your majoring in significantly dictates this. 2. The top colleges are usually specialists in high demand careers so as result their graduates are more likely to get those high demand jobs. A few items to discuss. 1. American Schools have become EXTREMELY opportunistic and basically want to use the government as a blank check the same way the military industrial complex currently uses the government. This is their end game. As result they love unlimited federal loans as that means they can essentially generate a blank check. Also by duping young adults who don't know any better they can take advantage of them getting them locked into predatory loans. As you stated the Federal loans being distributed so easily is what inflates the cost of education. 2. The entire public education from 5-18 years old pushes the propaganda that everyone should go to a 4 year university and that if you don't you're stupid, or mentally incompetent. This in turn creates high demand. There are a great many students that have no business going to 4 year universities and would be better suited learning a trade or going to community college. 3. Public universities have made it difficult for people to even get their foot in the work field, as most places require a college degree. Many places generally use this as a place holder and the significance of that degree is in many places negligible, as most colleges teach theoretical education while careers employ practical education. 4. Propaganda creating the unrealistic ideal that any college degree will generate good money is pushed like wildfire by the education system. Colleges are notorious as if the revealed the truth it would damage enrollment and certain non-profitable majors would vanish entirely. Essentially many universities prey un brainwashed, unsuspecting kids. Possible Solutions. 1. Public School teachers and other people who work in government positions should have their student debt forgiven if they agree to work in the government position for 4 years. 2. Stop pushing college on everyone while they're children. Instead inform them of profitable high demand technical trades skills and let the students decide. Stop creating the toxic atmosphere that someone who picks up a trade is stupid. 3. Government should be encouraging less student loans but more scholarships and grants. 4. Government should be willing to forgive student debt if college students secure degrees in areas where there's a national shortage in critically important industries. For example we have a nursing and physician shortage, and this could be remedied by allowing those graduates in those fields to have their student debt paid off if after the get their degree they work for 4 years in the field. 5. Utilizing the internet and the "free education" to lower costs. Technology has made learning and higher quality education extremely affordable. Many industries should focus more on career oriented certificates as an alternative to expensive education.

Important issue. Please change the anchor and slow down dude. So peaceful as I pause the video.

Why university and healthcare are so expensive in USA boils down to GREED!!!

European universities are practically free. Indian universities: Hehe. LOL.

many us states waive tuition fees to state universities if you excel on standardized tests. tuition is free for intelligent americans but everyone has equal opportunity to try if they have money in their pocket. for those who maybe didn't do well in college or on tests the community college system is great. in massachusetts anyone who earns an associates degree at a community college is automatically accepted to the state University systems and continues to pay tuition at the community college rate which is next to nothing. i graduated at the top of my class from umass Amherst at age 30 going the community college route. no sympathy for those with debt who needed to live on a college campus for 4 years.

My firm (one of the Big 4) pays for full-time graduate programs. It’s a competitive program where one applies and is selected for. I’m planning to take advantage of it if I’m accepted to a top 5 business school. I paid for my undergrad at UMD with mostly scholarships and $2000 out of pocket working as server at Red Lobster. There are ways to get educated without getting into debt. If you are getting into too much debt for a college degree which will not justify itself... a college education might not be for you.

You're a brilliant man, Grant

The thumbnail looks like it came straight out of a well-scripted "pawrn" film.

You can’t talk about the problem with US universities without mentioning athletics. Here’s my suggestion, either privatise them completely or abolish them. Privatisation would free the school from paying for athletics and everything that comes with them, it would also remove the athlete-student double-bind by making those athletes employees of a private company that could pay them. If that athlete wanted to attend the university, they’d do it as a regular student without special privileges. Abolition saves the school money and refocuses it on education.

Online education is the future.

I think it was something with legal changed enacted in 80s which allowed them to skyrocket. Other reason is American exceptionalism and surprising lack of common sense on part of to-be students - people taking equivalent of mortage(!) to study not medicine, engineering but gender studies, journalism or underwater basket weaving and being surprised, that they are not in demand after graduation. Add to this flatlining demand and wages afterward....and on the other hand politicization of education.