Yesterday, Bloomberg reported how the ballooning of the student loans will impact the US economy.  One interesting note that Bloomberg made is that higher ed institutions may need to take some of the blames.

With Bloomberg notes, our discussion today focuses on a more micro level–the effects on the US higher Ed.  Needless to say that in an open economy, where everything is entangled, the impacts is pretty obvious.  A more relevant questions would be, which higher ed groups will be impacted the most?  The answer to this questions is also straight forward–that is the most vulnerable institutions.  So which one?  Please click here for the answers.  The next relevant questions, would be, what should they do?

Well, the Association has observed “the behavior” of many, but not all.  Usually the US higher ed decision makers are not willing to take the risk.  Simple reason, there is no incentives or rewards for them by doing so.  Rather, each person will compromise long-term students’ objectives with her or his short-term interests.  This safety-first strategy usually leads to a do-nothing policy.  The college decision makers’ motives are pretty obvious, to max-out their own interests (retirement, benefits, year-end bonuses, monthly salary, etc), rather than the students’. There is nothing wrong with that.  However, if the focus is unbalance then, they may make biased decisions on the students’ expense.  They would rather not to take any actions that will trigger a no confidence vote from the faculty.  In many cases, members of these groups hop from one institution to the other to avoid accountability or responsibility.  Past trends show that when the reckoning time arrives, they either will retire, or move to another institution, depending on their age group.