Comment by willis936
7 hours ago
I was in university around the same time. While there I saw a concerted effort to push online courses. Professors would survey students fishing for interest. It was unpopular. To me the motivation seemed clear: charge the same or more for tuition, but reduce opex. Maybe even admit more students to just have then be remote. It watered down the value of the degree while working towards a worse product. Why would a nonprofit public university be working on maximizing profit?
Online courses are also increases admin overhead.
Universities aren’t profit maximizing. They are admin maximizing. Admin are always looking to expand admins budget. Professors, classrooms, facilities all divert money away from admin and they don’t want to pay it unless they have to.
Also applies to hospitals in USA.
> Why would a nonprofit public university be working on maximizing profit?
Because 'nonprofit' is only in reference to the legal entity, not the profit-seeking people working there? There is still great incentive to increase profitability.
You're thinking of not-for-profit. Non-profits do not seek increased profitability in the same way since it's expected (mandated?) they don't have any.
I'm not thinking of either. The profit-seeking people looking to increase their profitability spoken of are neither non-profits nor not-for-profits.
So they can educate more students? Many university classes are lecture only with 200+ students in the class and no direct interactions with profs. Those courses might was well be online.