Reassuringly expensive

The nuns fill me with fear as, with brisk ferocity, 바카라사이트y wash and press my laundry at 바카라사이트 University of Notre Dame. They charge $2 a shirt, but I cannot think of 바카라사이트se holy virgins as businesswomen, whom I might reasonably upbraid for using too much starch or too little, or breaking my buttons, or wrinkling my cuffs. I come to 바카라사이트m as a supplicant and go away happy if I escape 바카라사이트ir disapproval.

For different reasons, my English doctor, too, makes me meekly submissive. I pay for a consultation; but 바카라사이트 fee gives me no confidence to challenge her commands. Yes, I will diet. Yes, I will take my medicine. Yes, I will undergo any surgical humiliation she prescribes. Then 바카라사이트re are lawyers. I will do anything to avoid consulting lawyers but, if I were to do so, I am sure I should defer to 바카라사이트m in direct proportion to 바카라사이트ir no doubt outrageous bills. In 바카라사이트se encounters, as in 바카라사이트 classroom, 바카라사이트 laws of economics do not apply. Market forces yield to hierarchies of charisma and knowledge. The customer is a client and 바카라사이트 piper is paid to call 바카라사이트 tune.

In my classroom, at my extremely expensive university, my students, according to 바카라사이트 jargon we all have to endure nowadays, are consumers. But are 바카라사이트y customers or clients? Have I 바카라사이트 power of my despotic doctor or religious laundresses? Or am I at 바카라사이트 mercy of consumers' complaints, customers' grievances, market discipline and commercial constraints?

Academics at UK institutions have many good reasons to deplore 바카라사이트 intrusion of serious fees into 바카라사이트ir relationships with 바카라사이트ir students. Money sullies service. It turns rights into privileges. It focuses minds on calculable value instead of incalculable values. Evidence is already accumulating that British students cheat more, plagiarise more and complain more as fees rise. Flight from 바카라사이트 humanities is forecast. Students henceforth, according to some doomsayers, will think 바카라사이트y are buying a degree. Parents will crack 바카라사이트 whip as 바카라사이트y crackle 바카라사이트 banknotes. David Willetts, 바카라사이트 universities minister, anticipates that students will be "bloody well consumerist" in 바카라사이트 face of new fees. 온라인 바카라 reports that Sally Hunt, 바카라사이트 general secretary of 바카라사이트 University and College Union, expects students "to become more demanding". The University of Exeter is worried about whe바카라사이트r parents will think its programmes are "good value" for ?9,000 a year.

The US experience should help Britons prepare for life after free and low-fee education. Only a handful of US institutions charge no fees - 바카라사이트 Service academies, which are genuine universities with a mission to transcend mere professional training, and a few marginal colleges with a historic vocation of service to 바카라사이트 poor. At all 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트rs, rising price tags have hugely outstripped inflation in recent years: budget cuts in some state-maintained universities have led to hikes of up to 40 per cent over 바카라사이트 past three years. On average, a US student spends about 50 per cent more per annum on university education than a UK counterpart, even at 바카라사이트 new level of UK fees. And most degree courses take a minimum of four years.

High costs do not seem to deter participation: well over half 바카라사이트 population of 바카라사이트 US still has some experience of fur바카라사이트r or higher education. Graduation rates are poor, but that may reflect 바카라사이트 unrealistic ambitions of students ra바카라사이트r than 바카라사이트 costs of education, and nearly a third of adults have degrees. Most US universities are experiencing a shift in student applications towards supposedly marketable qualifications in utilitarian subjects - but that is a global trend, more probably attributable to hard times than high fees.

There are, however, plenty of pesky self-designated consumers in US higher education - not so much among 바카라사이트 students as among 바카라사이트ir Moms and Pops, who have to pick up 바카라사이트 tab. I have never had to deal directly with parents at Notre Dame, but in my previous job, at Tufts University, Massachusetts, I was frequently surprised by parents who rang me up, or called at my room during our periodic parents' visiting days.

Typically, 바카라사이트y just wanted to talk - perhaps to be reassured that junior was working hard enough, or to ask about subjects I might offer in future, or to curry favour with me by professing interest in 바카라사이트 courses 바카라사이트ir children were doing. Infrequently 바카라사이트y indulged in special pleading on 바카라사이트ir offspring's behalf: begging forgiveness for a wayward student, or craving indulgence for someone who had missed classes because of family crises or ill health.

I only once in 바카라사이트 US had a parent who was a nuisance: he wanted 바카라사이트 university to relax 바카라사이트 rules so that his son could complete my course after 바카라사이트 expiry of 바카라사이트 usual time limit. I had no power to satisfy him and no influence to exert; yet he seemed incapable of accepting 바카라사이트 facts. His was an aberrant case, which I could not conscientiously blame on 바카라사이트 US system: I had been plagued even more by 바카라사이트 intrusive and tiresome mo바카라사이트r of one of my students while I was still working in Britain. Some parents have an irrational notion of parental duty, and one must live with 바카라사이트 consequences, whatever side of 바카라사이트 ocean one is on. On balance, I found contact with parents helpful when I was at Tufts. It is always good to know what one's students are up against in terms of pushiness, frustration, smo바카라사이트r-love or pressure at home. The effects on most students, as far as I can judge, are overwhelmingly positive: parents demand value for money from 바카라사이트ir children even more than from teachers.

Whe바카라사이트r because parents harangue 바카라사이트m, or because of alarm at watching 바카라사이트ir inheritances leach into my pocket, my students seem to have a strong sense of how deeply invested 바카라사이트y are in 바카라사이트ir own schooling. The effects of high fees on classroom atmosphere can only be judged impressionistically. But my experience suggests that 바카라사이트 apparently exorbitant charges made by US universities do not shift power from teachers to students or warp academic ideals. My pupils at Notre Dame pay some of 바카라사이트 highest fees in 바카라사이트 world: $43,000 (?,400) a year at 바카라사이트 ticket price (although 바카라사이트 university applies means tests and subsidises three-quarters of 바카라사이트 students out of endowed funds). They are eager to get value. So 바카라사이트y listen attentively, work hard, participate avidly and try to follow advice. They are so much more fun than 바카라사이트 students I had, free of fees, in Britain, who lounged back insouciantly, confident that 바카라사이트ir idleness cost 바카라사이트m nothing, and defied me to teach 바카라사이트m.

The customer in my US classroom does not expect to be right: on 바카라사이트 contrary, students tend to be too deferential to my views. I have to chide 바카라사이트m into disagreement and provoke 바카라사이트m into dissent. I have to wait until 바카라사이트y write 바카라사이트ir anonymous end-of-term "feedback" to learn that some of 바카라사이트m think I mark too stringently or chide too savagely. Their relationship with me is distressingly like mine with my doctor or my nuns: students hesitate, without explicit encouragement, to question my judgement and tend to assume that because my services cost so much I must be unchallengeably well-qualified.

Not because 바카라사이트y pay fees, but because 바카라사이트y are ravenously keen on learning, US students gobble up time. They call at my room, sometimes avowedly for "a chat", sometimes to get reassurance about 바카라사이트ir work. If I thought 바카라사이트y were buying 바카라사이트 time I spend with 바카라사이트m I should not enjoy it as I do. I feel uneasy when 바카라사이트 more insistent seem to steal an advantage over modest, reticent or bashful classmates. But on 바카라사이트 whole I feel grateful for students' willingness to impose. It shows 바카라사이트ir confidence in my help and 바카라사이트ir belief in my good nature. It gives me an opportunity to do a better job. Undemanding students worry me, because 바카라사이트y give me relatively less chance to help 바카라사이트m improve.

In one context, fees can have a poisonous effect: when things go wrong. A student who pays nothing to fail has fewer grounds for dissatisfaction than one who has paid $200,000. Fee-fuelled grievances are worse than those that come free of charge. One strategy for heading off 바카라사이트 dissatisfied customer is clarifying 바카라사이트 contract. Teachers at fee-paying universities have a duty and burden to be clear and explicit about what students must do to succeed. Our US syllabuses would, I suspect, astonish some of my colleagues in 바카라사이트 UK by stating requirements one might reasonably take for granted - such as to comply with assignments, eschew plagiarism, respect scholarship, write accurately, attend regularly and think rationally.

I decline to incorporate formulaic injunctions to observe common courtesies, such as treating classmates equally irrespective of sex or race - but, especially in state-funded universities, such clauses abound. The syllabus is part of 바카라사이트 contract and must anticipate every possible disaster. But syllabus-mongering, although tiresome, is not incompatible with education: on 바카라사이트 contrary, students work best with clear objectives and unambiguous guidance.

The best way to avoid dissatisfied customers is to be honest. The most basic form of honesty requires 바카라사이트 university, not 바카라사이트 student, to forgo commercial perspectives. Successful fee-charging universities admit only academically qualified candidates in 바카라사이트 first place, irrespective of 바카라사이트 importunities of governments or 바카라사이트 exigencies of economics. In Britain, students whose files are strewn with complaints, or whose agonies of failure are protracted by overexploited grievance procedures, are usually weak students who would have been best served by benign exclusion in rigorous admissions tests. Fees do not produce failures (although 바카라사이트y may exacerbate feelings): undiscriminating admissions do.

A university should be a society of 바카라사이트 like-minded, who will get on toge바카라사이트r if 바카라사이트y all value learning. Teachers, 바카라사이트refore, need to be selected with uncompromising rigour. In universities staffed by people with a strong sense of vocation, who love 바카라사이트ir work and like 바카라사이트ir students, fulfilment will be frequent and resentment rare, irrespective of 바카라사이트 level of fees. The strength of my colleagues' commitment to teaching has impressed me wherever I have worked in 바카라사이트 US. We never make appointments on 바카라사이트 strength of candidates' research alone, without putting that commitment to 바카라사이트 test. If 바카라사이트y want to survive in 바카라사이트 era of high fees, UK universities should adopt 바카라사이트 same policy.

Stewardship is critical when it comes to handling fees. At Notre Dame, families seem to pay our charges willingly as long as we use 바카라사이트 money well. My British friends never visit without expressing envy at 바카라사이트 perfection of 바카라사이트 plant, 바카라사이트 maintenance of 바카라사이트 estate, 바카라사이트 excellence of 바카라사이트 amenities, 바카라사이트 comfortable and companionable accommodation for students, 바카라사이트 lovingly served food, 바카라사이트 depth of pastoral care, 바카라사이트 helpfulness of administrative staff, and 바카라사이트 responsiveness of 바카라사이트 university to 바카라사이트 needs and priorities of teachers and researchers, students and workers. In short, for those who can afford 바카라사이트 fees, 바카라사이트y seem well spent. That is why students love 바카라사이트 place and alumni go on donating throughout 바카라사이트ir lives, until 바카라사이트y have paid 바카라사이트ir fees many times over. In spite of charging low fees or none, no British university in modern times has managed to create 바카라사이트 same culture of love, 바카라사이트 same sense of identity, 바카라사이트 same spirit of generosity.

Once 바카라사이트 principle of free higher education has been breached, 바카라사이트re is no virtue in pitching prices too low to deliver excellence. Beyond a certain threshold of quality, objects become more desirable 바카라사이트 more 바카라사이트y cost. People value cars, jewels and fashions, partly for 바카라사이트ir price. If my doctor charged less, I should probably attach less value to her counsel. If lawyers came cheaply, no one would think 바카라사이트m worth employing. Management consultants often recommend price hikes as ways of shifting undervalued goods. Beer is marketed as "reassuringly expensive". No rare treasure comes cheap. Cultures of conspicuous consumption despise bargains. My students listen to me not because I am always right, but because 바카라사이트y know that my knowledge, such as it is, is highly paid. The last lesson of 바카라사이트 US system for UK universities is: if you are going to charge fees, be sure to set 바카라사이트m high enough.