If the state is to give “everyone” a bachelor’s degree to document that they are smart, the diploma will be worthless.
The comments expresses the writer’s opinions.
Imagine for a second you were transposed into the karmic driven world of Earl.
Now you understand how Norwegian universities and colleges have had it in recent years.
In 2018, the Ministry of Education sent harsh letter to universities and colleges with criticism of spending money. The schools had used for lite money, and Minister Iselin Nybø demanded written feedback on what measures they should introduce to reduce the inventory of unused funds.
This absurd situation may be part of the explanation for the strong reactions to Ola Borten Moe from the Center Party being appointed as the new Minister of Research and Higher Education. Because after being pressured to spend more money, both by former Minister of Research and Education Iselin Nybø, and partly her successor Henrik Asheim, universities and colleges now have a minister who have previously said things like:
“There is (too) much money in the state. With the free flow of oil money, it is easy to avoid prioritizing »
“There are many horrible examples of public resource use”
… and that some news items “Documents a lack of respect for the use of tax money in the administration we do not tolerate much of.”
Principals fear losing money
People in research environments had obviously agreed with the attitude towards Borten Moe, because the first reactions were, among other things, that university rectors now fear loss of money.
Associate Professor Arve Hjelseth at NTNU thought Ola Borten Moe had “Marked himself as a classic anti-intellectual”.
But where intellectually Is it like politicians to indulge uncritically with those who demand more money, always giving in to demands? Never remove the support wheels, never clean, never prioritize? We never hear anyone complain every time the bureaucrats get such a minister.
Being a politician should be about getting the most out of limited resources, and then it is clear that Ola Borten Moe should be allowed to use his intellect to be critical of spending money, also in research and higher education.
In any case, one does not have to be very intellectual to see that it is possible to slow down the transfers to schools, where the money is about to burst, even when the principals pour out money as best they can.
To waste is not to show strength
Former Minister of the Environment Erik Solheim must have said that ministers are seen as each if they are not fighting to get even more money for their mail.
It should be the opposite: Not being able to do your job without it even more money is weak. It’s a cry for help.
Being able to help others by not having burned off all of their own resources shows strength. The best thing Ola Borten Moe could do is to stop forcing colleges and universities to burn money they strictly do not need, and let a couple of billion go to better causes. For example, back to the taxpayers, or the oil fund from which the money is taken.
Here you can read more posts by Are Søberg
Education is mostly about signaling
There is also good reason to believe that higher education is extremely overfunded. Bryan Caplan, who is a professor of economics at George Mason University, tells in the book The Case Against Education on how higher education translates into higher income.
The connection is clearly positive, but it is mainly due to a doctorate signals that you are already smart. Caplan believes 80 percent of the value of an education comes from here. What you have actually learned in education has far less to say – around 20 percent.
It is understandable that you as an individual will be interested in paying to signal that you are smarter than others. But should it be a government task?
If the state is to give “everyone” a bachelor’s degree to document that they are smart, the diploma will be worthless. Then the smart ones must take a master’s degree, and when everyone has a master’s degree, the smart ones must take a doctorate. A doctoral degree costs an average of three to five million tax kroner, and it will be expensive if the effect is mainly about putting people further up the queue in a zero-sum game.
That we educate ten times as many foreign PhD students in relation to the number of Norwegian PhD students abroad are also interesting considering Caplan’s ideas.
Several billion ships
In 2017, it was the University of Tromsø (UiT) that struggled the most to get their account emptied of tax money, they then put on 532 million kroner in unused funds. Since then, the Ministry of Education and Research has greatly increased the transfer to the item “higher education and research” from 44 to 54 billion in the state budget.
Despite the increased allocations, UiT has meanwhile become so efficient in spending money that they are now in danger of ending up with a overconsumption of NOK 100 million i 2021.
Among other things, it was not good enough to have access to to research vessels (FF Crown Prince Haakon which cost 1.4 billion kroner in its time, and the smaller FF Helmer Hanssen) is now planning UiT and third research vessels which will cost almost one billion tax kroner (before the budget gap). This will be an “ice-going campus” for up to 30 students.
Interesting price per study place!
Read more from the Norwegian debate here
It is not intellectually as politicians to throw unlimited amounts of tax money at principals who use their intellect to find the most creative ways to burn off the same money.
–
