With the new school year upon us comes another reminder that the system of higher education is broken; far too often placing profit above learning. A symptom of this problem can be found in a new report showing the average full-time student no longer takes the course credits required to earn a bachelor's degree in five years. Meanwhile, college tuition is rising, making it even more vital for students to graduate on time. Unfortunately, several factors, including unnecessary courses, unavailable classes, and professors outside (especially online) resources, are contributing to delays in graduation.
While these barriers to a timely graduation hinder students from joining the workforce, they result in a financial boon to universities - showing the perverse incentives colleges have to keep students in the classroom instead of their career field.
To try to keep costs manageable, many students have turned to community college to save money by earning credit for less cost, then transferring to earn their Bachelor’s degree. In fact, around a third of all U.S. undergraduates are currently attending a community college. However, around 30 percent of accumulated credits will be lost for those who wish to transfer to a traditional four-year university. Many of these universities argue this is due to a lack of rigor or an incomparable syllabus to the courses they offer, but standards this subjective make it difficult for students to predict whether their courses will be worth the time and money before transferring.
Additionally, many college students end up in remedial courses for little to no credit. These classes are meant to help students fill in the gaps in their education, but they cost money without counting towards the credits needed to earn a degree. States like California and Louisiana have taken steps to outlaw them, but this year over one million students will be forced to take one or more remedial classes in math or English, driving costs even higher for students.
Unfortunately, access to degree-qualifying course availability hardly improves when students arrive on campus.
Another major hurdle to the traditional four-year graduation timeline is the lack of space in required classes. This issue is all too common at universities today, especially as they cope with decreased enrollment trends brought on by the pandemic. Almost a quarter of courses are overloaded, and some schools only offer required classes once a year or even every other year. This makes it difficult for students to accommodate last-minute changes in their schedules because they failed to beat the flood of students registering for the same course at the same time. In this case, the consequences of a missed course could mean paying additional tuition for summer classes outside of regular financial aid, or pushing into additional years of schooling to finish graduation requirements.
To add to these self imposed roadblocks, many universities seem to be opposed to online learning and academic resources like Khan Academy, Quizlet, Chegg, Course Hero, and YouTube that accelerate the time to graduation. The main complaint is that they aid cheating, and while they may be abused, the reality is they are invaluable in helping students bolster traditional classroom learning by providing off-hour study help - particularly for those with a gap in their education who are trying to play catchup. Unclear academic integrity policies regarding online learning have left students grappling with what’s permissible, and strict punishments, including suspension, contribute to students failing courses and even having to drop out of school.
Unfortunately, students have no say in the metrics for earning a college degree, and these issues continue to fly under the radar while the general public focuses their attention on whether students who have amassed massive debt—due in large part to these challenges—should have some of that erased.
Not only does an extended graduation timeline compound student debt, staying in college longer causes years of income loss for those who are unable to graduate on time. This financial double whammy only exacerbates the student debt crisis.
Students are doing what they can to secure their degrees, but we must better align the system of higher education and eliminate the artificial and bureaucratic barriers meant to keep students in the classroom instead of in the workforce.