The Free Market’s Partied Too Hard at University
Packing in students while inflating their grades signals a marketplace that's broken.
The U.S. import England doesn’t need? Massive student debt, of course.
Photographer: Joe Raedle/Hulton ArchiveThe defining economic and political shift of modern times has been the spread of financial and market-based principles to new parts of society. It’s long been a feature of higher education in the U.S., where student debt has surpassed $1.5 trillion. Now, England is trying too.
Considering its small population, England boasts a remarkable number of the world’s top-ranked universities, leading an enviable system of tertiary learning. These schools, once proudly independent, are fast becoming businesses beholden to market forces. Several have issued bonds. Sadly, this process of “marketization” is also undermining the very people and public policy goals it was supposed to support. England’s universities are now among the world’s most expensive. 3