Education

The great master’s degree swindle

From The Chronicle: “Way back when, it was hard to know if a given master’s degree provided any real value to students. Then the U.S. Department of Education released a database of debt and earnings information for graduate programs. Last month, The Wall Street Journal used the data to expose Ivy League programs that offered a terrible return on borrowed investment. Film students at Columbia were typically borrowing $181,000 apiece before entering a job market that pays less than $30,000 per year. People who assume world-famous universities wouldn’t exploit naïve students were shocked. People who know better because they work in academe got defensive. … The question is how long the proliferation of questionable master’s programs is going to last, and what might happen if the higher-education industry doesn’t get it under control.”

View the full article from The Chronicle.