The Coming Crisis in Higher Education, Richard Vedder

Richard Vedder is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Economics at Ohio University, a senior fellow at the Independent Institute, and Adjunct Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.  In his lecture he will argue that falling efficiency and productivity threaten a crisis in higher education. In his 2004 book, Going Broke By Degree: Why College Costs too Much, Vedder argued that American Universities have allocated resources away from the core mission of teaching and have become less efficient.  He argued that to address this problem, state universities should be subject to fee market competition and privatization.  In particular, he suggested that colleges and universities should consider expanding distance learning, eliminating non-educational programs, modify tenure, raise teaching loads, and reduce administrative staffing.