Facts and Quotes

"Coursera says 70 percent of students who complete the first week [of courses] abandon their courses."

–Financial Times, Education: From blackboard to keyboard. January 17, 2013

"67 percent of two-thirds of incoming freshmen said their choice of which college to attend was significantly affected by current economic conditions, up from 62 percent two years ago." eCampus News, More proof that the economics of higher education must change. Annual Survey reports a growing number of students are choosing schools based on cost.

"The number of students taking an online course has nearly quadrupled over the past decade, with nearly one-third of all postsecondary students in the nation- including many working adults- currently taking at least one course online."

–National Governors Association, Issue Brief - Regulating Online Postsecondary Education: State Issues and Options.

"Just under two-thirds of all chief academic officers of colleges and universities stated in a recent survey that online learning is "critical" to the long-term strategy of their institution."

–National Governors Association, Issue Brief - Regulating Online Postsecondary Education: State Issues and Options.

"Global Spending on education is $3.9 trillion, or 5.6% of planetary GDP. America spends the most-about $1.3 trillion a year-yet the U.S. ranks 25th out of the 34 OECD countries in mathematics, 17th in science and 14th in reading."

–President's Council of Economic Advisers

"Online teaching and learning is a wonderfully liberating development that is increasing access to education dramatically. However, students want success as well as access so good online learning must be supported by online contact between students and teachers. Academic Partnerships provides this, which explains why it is has good completion rates compared to the horrendous drop-out rates in the first round of massive open online courses that assume all teaching and learning can be automated."

–Sir John Daniel

"We need a climate in which colleges and universities are less imitative, taking pride in their uniqueness. It's time to end the suffocating practice in which colleges and universities measure themselves far too frequently by external status rather than by values determined by their own distinctive mission."

–Ernie Boyer, Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate, 1990

"Even though 77% of adults are interested in attending college in some form, or anticipate so, fewer than 5 percent of adults actually enroll in any one year."

–Inside Higher Ed

"Looking further into the future, the financial reality for younger families (ages 25 to 34), who will eventually be sending their children to college, is grim. Real income among this group declined by nearly 13 percent between 2000 and 2010."

–Lynn O'Shaughnessy
Lawlor IMSE 

"Between 2000 and 2010, the real median income for families dropped nearly 11 percent. Adjusted for inflation, the median income is now similar to what it was in 1996. How are parents supposed to pay for school?"

–Lynn O'Shaughnessy
Lawlor IMSE 

"While high school grads in the West and South have remained mostly stable, the number of teenagers has declined significantly in the East and Midwest. This is creating problems for schools in the latter regions since most students attend college within 100 miles of their home."

–Lynn O'Shaughnessy
Lawlor IMSE 

"After peaking in 2008, the number of high school students has been declining slowly. This is creating more competition among schools hustling for students and putting pressure on the institutions' admission yields."

–Lynn O'Shaughnessy
Lawlor IMSE 

"During the past 40 years, degree attainment has increased 45% for those in the top quartile of family income and only 2% for those in the bottom quartile of family income, compared to 14% overall."

–Postsecondary Education Opportunity
Lawlor IMSE 

"57% of Americans say the higher education system in the United States fails to provide students with good value for the money."

–Pew Research Center
Lawlor IMSE 

"Only 57% of first-year students were satisfied with the relevance of their coursework to everyday life."

–CIRP
Lawlor IMSE 

"The most common response of first-year students in 2010 when asked what reasons were very important for going to college was “to be able to get a better job,” cited by 84.7%; “to get training for a specific career” was cited by 77.6%."

–CIRP
Lawlor IMSE 

"Even after grant aid, the percentage of family income required to pay for college in 2007 was 72% for those who made $30,200 or less, 36% for incomes of $30,201 to $54,000, 27% for incomes of $54,001 to $80,400, 21% for incomes of $80,401 to $115,400, and 14% for incomes over $115,400."

–Education Trust
Lawlor IMSE 

"Average family income decreased 6% for the top quintile and 16% for the bottom quintile from 2000 to 2010."

–College Board
Lawlor IMSE 

"Among high school students who graduated in 2010, 55% of those who went on to college said that being able to afford it was challenging, and 56% of those who did not go on to college said that the cost was more than their family could afford."

–College Board
Lawlor IMSE 

"62% of first-year students in 2010 agreed (20% agreed strongly) that the 'current economic situation significantly affected my college choice.'"

–CIRP
Lawlor IMSE 

"89% of parents of prospective students said 'paying for school' was one of their biggest concerns during the college search process, versus only 70% who listed 'finding a college that’s a good fit.'"

–Cappex
Lawlor IMSE 

"Only 22% of Americans agree and 75% disagree that 'college costs in general are such that most people are able to afford to pay for a college education,' and only 40% say the higher education system provides good value in relation to its cost."

–Pew Research Center
Lawlor IMSE 

"When America's traditional universities arose, knowledge was scarce, which meant that research and teaching had to be coupled tightly. That is no longer the case. Today, the internet is democratizing people's access to knowledge and enabling learning to take place far more conveniently in a variety of contexts, locations, and times."

–Clayton M. Christensen
Harvard Magazine 

"We may have the capabilities. But academics are wary of them. In a recent poll by Inside Higher Ed and Babson Survey Research Group, 58 percent of professors said they were more afraid of online learning than excited by it. A full two thirds percent said learning outcomes on the web were inferior to in-person instruction. Yet, the more experience instructors had teaching online, the more positive they felt about it."

- Jeffrey R. Young
Diigo

"Lectures came about several hundred years ago when there was one copy of the book, and the only person who had it was the professor," she said. "The only way to convey the content was for the professor to stand at the front of the room and read the book. One would hope that we had better capabilities these days."

-Daphne Koller
Coursera

“It is not the strongest of the species who will survive, nor will it be the most intelligent, but rather those most responsive to change.”

–Charles Darwin

“As tuition costs have increased sharply over the years, the productivity of the plant and faculty has decreased.”

“Tuition in real dollars has tripled over the past 20 years.”

“Half of the class of 2012 was unemployed or underemployed after graduation.”

“Online education can be like a 21st Century Peace Corps. Around the world income inequality is growing and education is the only sustainable solution. Technology delivered higher education is the great leveler in today's world.”

"The Edinburgh lecturers, who teach in an e-learning master’s degree program at the university, have written a Manifesto for Teaching Online.”
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD PDF

"The latest Babson Survey Research Group study found that two-thirds of the 2,500-plus higher-education institutions it surveyed view online education as critical to their long-term education strategy."

"The most under-monetized asset in American society is the perceived value of the brands of US public universities internationally."

"In 1991, for every dollar a UT Dallas student paid in tuition, the State of Texas provided $4.23 in funding. Last year, for every dollar paid in tuition, the state provided 41 cents. Next fall, state support will drop to about 37 cents for every dollar of tuition."

“Let me put colleges and universities on notice: If you can’t stop tuition from going up, the funding you get from taxpayers will go down.”

"Much of the content they use comes from leading universities worldwide – not only MIT, but Tufts University, the University of Michigan, the University of Nottingham, The Open University and the University of California, Berkeley. Those are among some 250 institutions worldwide that have put a collective 15,000 courses online in what has become known as the open courseware movement."

"The question for universities has been: Are we going to react to change or lead it? Today Harvard and MIT gave their answer to that question."

"During the last 20 years, much of teaching responsibilities have been outsourced to low-paid adjuncts, teaching assistants, and non-tenured full-time faculty, who now represent up to 70 percent of the total faculty. …when you factor in what governments spend on higher-ed and what individuals cover in tuition, the country pays about $110,000 for every bachelor’s degree and $55,000 for every associate’s degree granted, not including other costs like housing and books."

"Today, 27 million American adults have started, but not completed, a degree." 

"While student enrollments in online courses have increased 348 percent since 2003, the percentage of academic administrators who believe that learning outcomes in online course are equal or superior to those of face-to-face courses has increased by only 10 percent during that time, from 57 to 67 percent."

“Whenever change outside of an organization is greater than change within an organization, that organization will ultimately fail.”

“Since most online education is simply classroom instruction delivered through the Internet, it isn’t surprising that the learning outcomes are roughly the same. Most colleges, including online institutions, have yet to find ways to use technology to really transform education.”

“Online education is not an enemy of residential education, but instead a powerful and inspiring ally.”

“Is it really different this time? Throughout the SCHE class, we’ve seen times when people said that incumbent colleges and universities were headed for oblivion – as they’re saying now. But could it actually be true this time? The warning signs are certainly numerous and prevalent:

• State funding for higher education is waning and unlikely to come back.

• Tuition costs are outrageously high, beyond the means of most families.
 
• The cost burden is shifting to the individual/families and the payback for the investment is becoming more difficult to justify (particularly since we can’t really measure it).

• Many universities are underperforming and it’s questionable what students are learning. Why do writing and critical thinking skills stagnant or declining?

• The business model for higher education is under great stress – and is perhaps broken – for all but a relatively small percentage of schools.

• The pace of technological change is accelerating, allowing us to mimic – and perhaps improve upon – what we do in the traditional classroom."