THE ECONOMIST: Higher Education Bubble: Blowing Up Grad School. More here. “The ultimate benefit seems to be a substantial wage premium, and comparisons of that premium to average levels of tuition or incurred debt make college look like an incredibly good deal. The tricky thing is that there may well be an identification problem: it could simply be the case that students who go to college earn more, because the types of students that go to college are the types that have characteristics (intelligence, discipline) that translate into higher earnings. University degrees could simply be expensive signaling mechanisms at best, in this world, and massively wasteful cultural institutions at worst.”
Related: Down To Business: Higher Education Is Ripe For Technology Disruption. “If you think online degrees will remain just a niche, consider the time when Borders and E.F. Hutton were touting their superior in-person experiences.”
Or is it really a student loan bubble?
What can’t go on forever, won’t. The increases in tuition and indebtedness we’ve seen over the past couple of decades can’t go on forever, so they won’t.