"Why is college getting so expensive?"

I've been asking myself the same thing.

It is a valid question anyway, as the cost for college today is 130% more expensive than it was in the 1970s, making young Americans today ponder if their four years of college education is actually worth the pay. Many people come up with different reason for this issue - budget cuts, physical maintenance, privatization - but there is also some economic explanations that are worth noting, like Baumol's Cost Disease theory and even a simple theory like supply and demand.

I have been working on a video package that discusses the rising cost of college education based on an economic perspective for my Advanced Videojournalism class where Michael Robinson, the Professor of Economics at Mount Holyoke College shares his opinions regarding the issue.

"Why is college getting so expensive?" - An Economic Perspective from Rahmah Pauzi on Vimeo.

About the video:

As students are also less sensitive to the price, it allows the colleges to care less about keeping prices under control, and the nonprofit nature of institutions reduces incentives for colleges and universities to be efficient. But what is not often discussed is, the education sector, like the healthcare industry, has not increased in its productivity significantly like other industries.

This makes it unable to produce more with less, unlike the car manufacturing industry - where it is making more cars with fewer workers and in less time than it did in 1980, and in turn, lowering the cost of cars for customers. Meanwhile, the average student-teacher ratio in college, sixteen to one, has not changed since thirty years ago, but this in any way does not let colleges pay their professors 1980 salaries. Hence the only way to pay 2012 salaries is indeed, by raising prices.

International graduate students from developing nations struggle to make ends meet

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by Rahmah Pauzi

AMHERST - On a $1,300 monthly allowance, Ahmed Siddig, a University of Massachusetts Amherst international PhD student, is figuring out how to spend his money this month. He has his wife with him, he has to pay his $800 rent, and he is also expecting a baby this April.

Coming from Darfur, Sudan, where the currency rate is three times lower, Siddig starts to get unsure if he could stand in such financial difficulty for three more years.

Siddig with his wife, Isra

“I think here, the level of life is so high if you compare with Sudan,” said Siddig, who is on a distinguished scholarship from the Islamic Development Bank of Saudi Arabia.

Siddig, 28, is one of the 1288 international UMass students who came from the developing nations, and struggling to make ends meet on scholarship and assistantship.

As a highly ranked public school for graduate studies, UMass often attracts graduate students from developing nations who are looking for an inexpensive high quality education.

However, because of the significant disparities with their home countries, often these students find themselves stuck in between the dream for better graduate education in the United States, and the pressing economic reality.

International graduate students make up 25 percent of the UMass graduate student population, and 75 percent of the entire international student population.

Most of the graduate students come with families, and often the scholarship does not cover their living expenses. Some must work two to three additional jobs, while carrying the burden of intensive graduate classes.

To those who do not come with families, they have to go through the stress alone.

Podcast: College students hope for more rapid economic recovery

Listen to my podcast here about what students in University of Massachusetts Amherst feel about the slow economic recovery in the post-recession United States.

International Program Office (IPO) coping to accommodate the increasing growth of international student population

by Rahmah Pauzi

AMHERST - When Zhi Ren Zhu came from Beijing, China, in 2009, he did not know that the Chinese student population at UMass will double in 2012. To him, this means home away from home.

Zhi Ren Zu, a civil engineering major, said it is hard to pass by somebody in the Oak Room of the Worcester Dining Common today who does not speak Chinese. 

Oak Room, located in the Northeast Residential Area, serves Asian food on weekdays.

“Everybody speaks Chinese in the Oak Room,” he said. “Even the food servers speak Chinese.”

The increase in Chinese students is just one of the changes at University of Massachusetts Amherst that the International Program Office (IPO) has to deal with - the IPO has to also cope with these changes with fewer resources.

With the growing population of international students in UMass, IPO has to figure out how to operate more efficiently and also to create more programs for the internationals students, under a tight budget.

 The International Student Advisor at IPO, Richard Yam, said while there is a growing trend of students coming from China, this year also marks the highest number of international student enrollment since the last five years. 

There were 1406 international students in UMass in 2009, and this year that number has increased for 21 percent to 1704.