The University Degree Is Losing Its Lustre(www.ft.com)
3 pointsby karakoram3 hours ago3 comments
  • karakoram3 hours ago
    > A striking new analysis by economists José Azar, Mireia Giné and Javier Sanz-Espín finds that, after climbing for decades, the wage premium for college graduates in the US has fallen in every one of the past four years. The total drop is almost 10 per cent — its first sustained decline since the 1970s.

    Paper: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=7364838

  • 4d4m3 hours ago
    Wrong framing. I think it's more that universities are waking up to the markets' value correction for their product, about a decade too late. They nerfed the product into something of low value and are just becoming aware.
    • dlcarrier2 hours ago
      It's the employment market waking up to the lack of value of the universities' credentialing. The universities themselves don't have a competitive market to speak of, because their customers are so heavily subsidized† that their income is still rising, despite the drop in value of their services.

      The universities themselves may react to market demand, if subsidies for their services decline, but it's also possible for subsidies to increase, despite the lack of value, as is often the case for a declining industry with a significant political presence.

      † Student loans may be repayed by the recipient, but they are not granted based on the market value of the loan, so they act as much like a subsidy as student loans paid by third parties.