United States: Ryanair-style competition for varsities

A Harvard University-educated entrepreneur with doubts about the value of traditional high-cost higher education programmes has launched the ‘Ryanair of university instruction. Echoing the approach of the successful budget airline, StraighterLine offers no-frills courses designed by former professors at cut-rate prices. They are provided at students convenience and can be transferred towards degrees at other institutions. Its mainstays are basic foundation courses required by most universities, including accounting, algebra, English composition, macro-economics and statistics. Each course costs only $39 (Rs.1,794) plus $99 per month for the duration. They are delivered online and feature collaborative study groups and live tutorials, with advisers available on email.At a time when students with diminishing financial and temporal resources increasingly assemble their education in fits and starts, the companys aim is to allow its customers to start, finish and work whenever and wherever they like. The model is growing quickly: although StraighterLine doesnt disclose specific data, it says its enrolment equals that of a small university less than six months after commencing full operations. In its first step towards internationalisation, it has just announced a partnership with Thompson Rivers University, Canada. The same principle applies internationally, which is that universities arent spending more than $100 per student to deliver these introductory courses, yet they are charging up to $2,500, says Burck Smith, StraighterLines chief executive officer and founder. We are providing the same or better courses; but we are pricing closer to the actual cost of delivery. Unsurprisingly, established universities are not thrilled about the idea of a no-frills low-cost rival, and are in a position to thwart StraighterLine by refusing to accept its credits towards their degrees. But Smith has already partnered with 14 accredited bodies — including conventional private institutions such as Assumption College, Massachusetts, public universities such as Fort Hays State University in Kansas and online providers including Western Governors University — who have agreed to accept the companys credits. According to Anya Kamenetz, author of DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education (2010), the cultural appeal of the four-year degree and the grassy quadrangle is still very strong. It is presented as sort of a litmus test for middle-class students in high school. Yet ideas such as Smiths are becoming increasingly popular, concedes Kamenetz, as university costs soar and the recession affects peoples willingness and ability to pay. The US for-profit higher education sector will see growth of 94 percent by 2015, compared with just 5 percent in the conventional academy, according to the higher education research and consulting firm Eduventures. Emerging ethics crisis in academia A slew of criminal charges, civil lawsuits, expensive legal settlements and other misdeeds by university managers and faculty in the US suggest that the ‘higher in higher education no longer necessarily applies to moral standards. Presidents, deans and department directors have been convicted of embezzling money from their universities and government research grants; administrators have been charged with sexually abusing subordinates; and faculty members have been indicted for falsifying credentials and…