Useless College Degrees: Universities Should Cosign/Guarantee Repayment of Loans

As many of you are aware, I'm a big fan of Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit. Here he has an excellent idea for bursting the higher education bubble. His idea is to make colleges and universities partly responsible for repayment of student loans when newly minted graduates enter the work force.


Far too many have what are essentially worthless college degrees that they have paid, well into the low 6 figures.

"With a college education now functioning, essentially, the way a high-school diploma used to, a law degree is the closest graduate equivalent to the traditional liberal-arts B.A. The biggest problem, though, is the staggering expense. Not all law schools are that expensive, but even state schools are pricey now, and for out-of-staters may cost as much as private schools. If I were looking at law school today I absolutely wouldn’t go into debt except for an absolute top school — like Yale, Stanford, Harvard. And even then I’d be wary. The debt is too enormous, and the prospects too uncertain — not only because of the economy, but because of the uncertain future even of big law firms.

Meanwhile, I have a structural solution: Make institutions of higher education partially liable when students are unable to pay student loans. A really strict system would make the school a co-signer, but making it even 5 or 10% liable for missed payments would really change the dynamic. Give schools some skin in the game. . . ."

This is a great idea...it would basically curb the present trend of "XXXXX Studies Degree" that are useless. These programs don't produce much, except for graduates who have developed a sense of entitlement that "someone owes them something."   The status quo is that colleges/universities have no incentive not to produce useless degree programs, while they have every reason to further  them.  If they were to basically have to help pay back loans that permitted the present glut of graduates with useless degrees, there would be far fewer such degrees awarded.