The worth of a degree does not depend on the continued existence of the institution that granted it. Maybe you can’t get a copy of your transcript, but I’ve never been asked for one.

However, to the extent that that’s a problem, it doesn’t justify keeping an unneeded college open. Moreover, the problem of too many colleges is actually a too much college capacity problem, which can be addressed by shrinking colleges instead of closing them.

AFAIK, few folks get degrees in one year, but I don’t see why that’s relevant.

I think you’re right; we DO have an oversupply of colleges. Though this global economic recession, especially if it lasts for years instead of months, may change this.

Perhaps in the end all we’ll have left are the Harvards, Yales, Princetons, the 100 or so state-run colleges ( U. of [State] and [State] State U.) and the community colleges in the big cities.

This makes me wonder, though… What’s your degree become worth in the job market if the college you went to one year simply ceases to exist?

The Martinez case challenges the legality of AB 540 (1991), which grants in-state tuition to illegal immigrant students who attended a California high school for three years, graduated here, and signed an affidavit saying they will apply for permanent residency as soon as they are eligible. (For the 2008-09 school year, out-of-state undergraduates pay about $28,600 to attend a UC school, compared with about $8,000 for students who qualify for in-state tuition.)

Plaintiffs contend that the state law should be invalidated because it violates federal immigration law that prohibits states from providing college benefits to illegal immigrants based on residency unless all U.S. citizens are eligible for the same benefits. If the Supreme Court sides with the plaintiffs, the Legislature will either have to repeal AB 540 or provide in-state tuition for students from other states.

Regarding Brian’s point, I understand the concept of marginal cost and marginal revenue. The in-state tuition charged by UC is less than the marginal cost, however. The difference is made up by state funding, which is provided as a block, not on a per-student basis. (The computation of UC’s marginal cost is exhaustively examined by the California Postsecondary Education Commission, Legislative Analyst, and Department of Finance annually.)

Brian is correct that, if marginal cost were less than marginal revenue, UC could simply hire more professors and admit more students. Unfortunately it’s not — at least for in-state students. Because of insufficient state funding, UC just reduced the number of freshman applicants it will accept for 2009-10. Thus, a “slot” taken by an out-of-state student is one that isn’t available to an in-state student.

If that’s a chronic problem, we have an oversupply of colleges….

A Western Civ class with 15 enrollees costs the same as a Western Civ. class with 20 enrollees – the prof is paid the same, the capital costs of the building are the same, the cost to heat and light the room is unchanged, there are no additional desks to be purchased, etc. So allowing in a certain number of out-of-state students increases revenues with little increase in cost to the university.

(There is, of course, some cost in having additional students – they will need to have an advisor, a computer account, etc. But these expenses are generally small.

This is, essentially, the reason that scholarships don’t cost as much is it seems that they would.

So, if I have a choice between driving 200k miles a year or 20k miles a year, I should only consider the marginal cost…. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I think that there’s a huge cost difference between buying a new car every year and buying one every ten years.

At worst, the cost of a car is a sunk cost. However, if we’re going to keep a car, how long the current one lasts matters.

Fixed costs aren’t actually unchangeable. They’re merely hard to change in the short term.

Practically speaking, there’s a much denser population on the Missouri side of the river (St. Louis and suburbs) than in southern Illinois, which consists of East St. Louis and a lot of corn grown for ethanol. SIU has always needed to attract students from across the river.

The conclusion I draw from the article is that it’s beginning to look like a buyer’s market in higher education and the suppliers are scrambling to sweeten the deals they’re offering.

There ought to be a parallel decline in marginal and non-contributing operations at the colleges like the various “studies” departments.