The additional comments about applying business concepts to education
prompt me to pass on what I have occasionally told students and to ask
a question.
1. When students have pressed me about 'getting their money's
worth' (they never actually use that phrase), I tell them that what
they have paid for is the right to work very hard to try to learn
something they've never known before. That's all--whether it's physics
or music or sports or whatever, the teacher simply cannot do the
learning for the student.
2. One person made the comment that 3/4 of the education is paid for
by the state. I'm curious about the level of support for those of you
who teach at "state-supported" schools. Here in Maryland, the level
of direct state funding to the schools in the "state" university system
has dropped to less than 1/3 of total operating budgets, so our
administrators prefer to describe us as "state subsidized" rather than
"state supported". We now get more than half of our operating budget
from tuition, which is one reason we're under pressure to admit and
retain more students, no matter what. How much does the state
contribute to the operation of other "state-supported" universities
out there in phys-l land?