Except that international students are not making up for decreased domestic enrollments. I assure you that the universities, even the elite ones to a large extent, do care.
I’ll take your word for it. Wouldn’t the decreased demands mean tuition reductions and scholarships? The top 50 schools are harder than ever to get in. Heck UF is in elite status and has the lowest cost. Is the issue that the lowest tier schools are having trouble while the higher tier are blowing and going?
I don't know about demand in relation to tuition, but would suspect that colleges do not necessarily operate akin to market-based businesses. Scholarships are often funded by donors, so the enrollment wouldn't typically impact those unless an institution fell out of favor with the donor. The top 50 schools probably face significantly lesser challenges than others. When I was faculty at UF, though (2009-12), the CLA and CFA were facing budget challenges, including a threat to cut the CLA. Now I'm at a regional university and budget measures have forced cuts of several faculty in our department, among others. We have faced other non-faculty cuts as well. Many universities are cutting athletic programs, too. Some are cutting football. But up here, there's nary a threat of cutting hockey. Aww hell no!
I can validate that the number of valuable IT certifications being issued is off the charts. On top of that, many employers value some of these certifications over a college degree.
Obama tried to implement the smallest of reforms requiring colleges to report graduation rates and post graduate job salaries. BOTH parties rebelled in unison. Both parties are complicit in the failures og big ed
Trade skill jobs actually pay well. And it doesn’t come with 80k debt at 6% rate just to get a job paying 40k a year. I got into mortgages in 2009 and make a good chunk more money then most of my friends who have college degrees.