Most kids around the world are taught at a young age that the only way you will achieve something in life or make it far in life is if you go to school, pay attention, do your homework and get good grades. From drawing in coloring books to adding and subtracting, from learning about basic geography to understanding how your cells work, from basic calculations to being able to calculate the return on investment of a portfolio. From kindergarten to high school and everything in between, building you up towards what we perceive as the last ultimate step towards defining your career, college. Society sees college as a pivotal step towards your future job. Your education level is the first thing employers look at when applying for a job. In this ever changing market, more emphasis is being put on obtaining a bachelor degree or higher. Students are no longer secured a decent paying job with only a high school diploma like they were a few decades ago when the baby boomers went to school. The biggest problem is due to the increased emphasis that has been put on bachelor degrees more people have obtained these degrees compared to the time when a high school diploma was enough and what that causes is that these degrees lose value as the supply of employees with them increase.  Nowadays in order for a student to attend college he or she most of the times needs to incur debt. College tuition has risen to ridiculous amounts and the only way students will ever be able to obtain a degree in order to "make it in life" will be to go neck deep into debt. Not only have these degrees become more expensive to obtain, but also it raises the question if the return on investment justifies the debt you will incur. The increase in tuition affects multiple groups of people in different ways such as the local student market, but the people who are mostly affected by this are international students who study abroad. These overinflated tuition costs and less valuable degrees have caused many students to default on their student loans. Students defaulting on their loans does not only effect the student but also everybody around them and if this is happening to enough students, it creates a problem for the economy.  I believe that due to the commercialization of universities in the United States they have become greedy and are negatively effecting the local and international student market. 

In order to find out what has made higher education such a controversial topic we must look at its roots. Increased college tuition is the root of all the controversy surrounding higher education. As fiscal pressures have mounted and public enrollment have swollen, states have shrank from their traditional commitment to keeping tuition low: after adjusting for inflation, public tuition levels rose by 76% at public 4-year universities and by 63% at community colleges between 1980 and 1993 (Kane). If it were not for the overinflated prices of attending college, there would not be problems such as the debt crisis among students or unequal educational opportunities among our society. "Rising college tuition is one of the most salient implications of the changing market structure, and I present both theory and empirical evidence that show how opening trade in the college market generates substantial rise in average tuition" (Hoxby, 1997). The US is one of the biggest competitors when it comes to higher education. There are numerous public and private colleges who seek international relations with outside of the country universities such as in Asia, Europe or South-America. The size and opportunity that the US economy provides attracts many international students and makes it appealing to them. The fact that the US has one of the strongest economies in the world only acts as a huge pull factor to study there. Students perceive the US as a land full of opportunities and if they are to land a well paying job or gain valuable experience, that one of the most likely places to get that would be in the US. The reason tuition has increased is because the job market in the US has become so filled with bachelor holders that it has become a norm to obtain your bachelors. The raise in employer expectations has only fueled this demand towards higher education and as the law of economics work, where there is huge demand, there is opportunity to increase prices and maximize profits. Profit maximization within higher education can only lead to a disadvantage for students because they are the ones who will reap the effects of this greedy corporate behavior.

The commercialization of higher education has lead to increased competition in the market and the adoption of new organizational goals. "News coverage from The Chronicle of Higher Education to the New York Times suggests that commercial values and practices have seeped into all areas of American academic life from research to the classroom to administration" (Kleinman and Thomas, 2014). Commercialization of higher education means that these educational institutions have adopted business culture and practices, and have started behaving more as corporations. Students are no longer seen as actual students but more as customers/clients. Some argue that institutional power has shifted substantially away from faculty members and towards administrators, at the same time, according to scholars and journalists, students are increasingly considered consumers. (Hoxby, 1997). The shift towards a more business oriented behavior within higher education can cause the universities to strive towards their own personal/corporate interests, even if it is at the expense of the student. In order to maximize profits. Like US K-12 education and health care, our higher education system is not only the most expensive per person in the world but appears to be declining in effectiveness (Dill, 2014). In order to maximize profits, colleges seek to maximize their student body. In the process of maximizing the student body, schools accept large amounts of students even if some do not meet the requirements. Somebody getting the same degree as you, but is not as qualified as you will only hurt the value of the degree in the long run and all of this because the school seeks to maximize profits. Schools were originally built around the idea of serving the community and helping society progress. So the schools were there for the students, but as the paradigm has shifted, these colleges are more concerned about themselves than the student. The new higher education system that is dominated by corporate goals do not only hurt the local student market but its effects are widely felt. 

Universities serve a variety of markets, they are not limited to the domestic market, but strive towards increasing the amount of international students that make up their student body. The trend towards increasing the amount of international students coincides with their ultimate goal of profit maximization and that can be seen by the fees that these students are charged. If you visit any University website and check their tuition fees you will see that international students pay three times the amount of regular tuition and the fact that it is only increasing, shows how difficult it is becoming for a foreign student to obtain a US degree. One of the groups that are most effected by the rise in tuition costs are in fact international students. There are a lot of aspects to consider when it comes to international students. Examples such as currency exchange rates, traveling costs and out-of-state tuition. International students mostly come from developing countries with the hopes of getting a high quality education are now faced with even more pressure, which is caused by the rising costs and the devaluation of the bachelor degree. International students return to their countries with debt up to their necks and an undervalued degree. According to Tim Mazzarol and Geoffrey Soutar the number of international students seeking higher education in the US have declined, in most part due to the rising cost of US universities and improvements in their local education systems. According to Philip Altbach, the United States is facing increased competition in the international student market and this is because of how strict their foreign student policies are compared to other countries. International students contribute large amounts of money to the US economy and have it difficult as it is with adapting to a different culture and going through the whole process in general. So as tuition rises due to the commercialization of higher education, international students are forced to incur huge amounts of debt. The only way to be able to obtain your bachelor degree nowadays is to take out a loan and that is what has lead to huge economic problems inside and outside of the US.

In order for most students to obtain a degree either be it local or international students, they mostly have to take out a loan. Debt has become an inevitable aspect to higher education and that is because of the increase in tuition. Increased tuition's effects are more severe than just a simple student debt problem. According to Chris Denhart the increasing student debt crisis is hurting not only our youth, but also elders and the economy. On average a 4-year student accumulates $26,600 in debt and one in ten students graduate with a debt above $40,000. Student debt brings dangers of slowing down the economy, which in turn can cause a loss of jobs. Student debt hinders their own development in a variety of ways. Due to the high monthly payments you lose the chance of saving up for retirement, starting a business, starting a family or even pushes back when you want to invest into a home for yourself. Student debt is not only the individual's problem, but society's problem. The federal debt is $16.7 trillion and of that 6% is student loan debt (Denhart, 2013). Most Problems are caused because of corporate greed in the educational field. When it comes to something as important as getting an education, students should not feel as if they are being punished afterwards. Education should be something that is free from the corporate world where the only goals are profit maximization opposed to student knowledge maximization.

Many people would say that going to college will generate a return on your investment, especially in a ever changing market where you cannot get far without one. On average a high school graduate earns an average of $1.2 million opposed to a bachelor's degree holder that earn about $2.1 million over their lifetime (porter, 2002). Not only do you benefit of monetary differences, but also social and individual benefits such as, better consumer decision making, improved life of your offspring, more open-minded, more cultured and more rational. More students attending college also increases tax revenue and productivity. I do believe going to college is necessary in order to get a well paying job. I also do agree that receiving a college education serves you more good than just pay increase. Education is something that is necessary and students should not be required to pay such ridiculous amounts of money for an education, especially if educational institutions are going to make it so expensive that the only way you can get an education is to incur a huge amount of debt or choose not go to college. Students are also kids and to put such a financial burden on somebody at such a young age, only limits all that they can do at a young age. If other countries such as Germany are able to make higher education affordable and not make their student incur ridiculous amounts of debt in order to get an education, then it is also possible in the US.

There are several solutions or alternatives to the problem with American universities. Shai Reshef is the founder of University of the People which is a non-profit online academic institution designed to make higher education accessible for all. According to Reshef the higher education system is failing millions of potential students that are eligible for higher education, but are left behind because of their financial situation, cultural situation or because supply cannot meet demand. Another alternative is to study abroad somewhere where higher education is more affordable such as in Europe. The only other alternative than incurring huge amounts of debt to obtain a bachelor degree or higher is to either go to a cheap lower quality college or not go to college and go into full-time employment right after high school and work your way through the ranks.

I believe that the higher education system has been changing over the last few years and have adopted an immoral and abusive business model. Colleges have transformed education into something that has almost become unobtainable for most. Education has gone from being a right to all, to a privilege to few, since tuition has increased so much that you must incur large sums of debt in order to afford it. There are millions of people in the world who are motivated and want to continue to study and acquire knowledge through education, but are looked over by these huge commercialized institutions. Most developing countries do not have advanced educational institutions, especially at the bachelor's and graduate level. Students who are born in these countries and who want to continue to higher education are forced to leave their home country and to go study abroad. These students are faced with obstacles such as obtaining a visa, culture shock, currency exchange rates and all around adapting to his or her new environment. An international student's quest towards an academic degree is difficult as it is, but nothing has been more of a burden than the increasing cost of these educational institutions. These international students are required to pay out-of-state tuition. If you visit any university website, most university's out of state tuition is about triple the amount of in-state tuition. International students are already burdened by expensive travel costs, expensive visa documents, expensive transcript translations and exchange rate fluctuations. Increased tuition only adds to their list of expenses, but the most troublesome thing of all is that these degrees are only continuing to increase in cost and at the same time are decreasing in value. Due to the commercialization of these educational institutions, their main goal shifted to profit maximization, which in turn has caused these degrees to become less valuable. In order to maximize profits, you must maximize the size of your student body. In order to increase their student body, universities have started admitting students who normally would be rejected, which in turn increases the amount of people with a bachelor degree and decreases the value of the bachelor degree. International students are directly effected by the selfish goals of these huge institutions. These international students are not only unlucky that their homeland cannot provide proper higher education, but also are forced to pay ridiculous amounts for a degree that has only lost its value in this economy. These international students incur huge amounts of debt only to return to their country with a devaluated degree. The corporate world is to blame, they have had a negative effect that has lead to corruption in the functioning of the system (Osipian, 2009). This abuse of power only emphasizes that the newly corporate higher education is a vicious cycle with only two major beneficiaries, the banks and the universities. 

