I've seen institutions push how many degrees they offer. I've never seen them highlight or push any specific degree for any length of time. I've never seen a school promote a prosperous future in advertisement in any way - just an increased chance. What is wrong with the expectation of success if you complete training. The disappointment comes when you jump all the hurdles and fail to have the tenacity or stamina to keep searching for entry level employment in your CHOSEN field and settle for something else. If all the school is selling is a path toward a specific degree with the potential for greater income than its entirely up to the student to meet the objectives AND strive to make it a reality when done. I will admit that the economy or lack thereof does play a critical part in the attainment of employment (still not the schools fault).

NO THEY SPECIFICALLY SELL JOBS AND PAY. That is not caveat emptor. caveat emptor requires the seller to say this is what you get, but as soon as they say you get something more, then it does not apply.

First off, its not the university's fault or problem. Something broke in people expectations on what a University degree is good for. Back in the 90's people kept repeating the mantra "just get a degree in something" , thing is that's not how the real world actually works.. So, we now have lots of folks who are discovering that a degree in creative writing with a certificate in communist studies isn't worth the paper its printed on. You will notice that you do not hear complaints about lack of jobs from folks who go to the university to study STEM subjects. Unfortunately, its not easy to convince 17 year olds to go into applied math or molecular biology, when as they see it they can spend 4 years at the university half drunk and then graduate into a high paying job. Since they don't see themselves actually paying for it they don't spend a lot of time thinking about what they are doing and only remain focused on getting any degree with the least amount of effort possible.. Of course the universities love it. They make the same money on a creative writing student that they do on a electrical engineering student. But, since creative writing does not require extra space or fancy equipment they can make a creative writing student for less cost to the university. Of course between the feds and the banks its surprisingly easy to get student loans ( mostly because they survive bankruptcy ) .. So, the Universities have spent a lot of effort in turning their campuses into plush playgrounds instead of institutes of higher learning.. I went to UW-Milwaukee back in the late 80's and early 90's when the campus looked like a post industrial waste land. But, the comp sci classes were excellent, We had no trouble doing the Thursday night math ( diff eq ) survival study group. We could always find an unused classroom with a lot of black board and fill them up. The student union was a mess, but the coffee was strong and the food was vaguely edible. Back then school seemed like it was crazy expensive. Tuition for a semester was around 1400 and books for me tended to be around 500 a semester. Back then, I was not very good at dealing with the financial aid folks. So, I got some loans, and payed for the lions share of my school out of my own pocket, by working whatever job I could find. It was the desperation to stay fed that probably made the biggest difference. My first year of real world work was as a data tape operator at an Ameritech data center. This was handy because I met a lot of old school Ma-Bell folks who later in life were valuable references. This set me up for my next couple of jobs. OI moved on from their to selling computers for a little while, then back to the university for what was supposed to be the big push to finish. Of course I needed work again, but now I was a great candidate for a job on campus in the computer services department. It was there that I solidified my relationships with the real movers and shakers in the local Linux/internet world. I finally left still before graduation because the internet suddenly became a thing. A thing that needed people with very highly specialized skills that simply didn't exist outside the university world.. When I left I stopped in to visit my adviser, he asked me why I was leaving when I was only like 3 semesters away from finally finishing. I told him then that I was leaving to get an education.
So, while it might not appear that I got my money worth for the time I was at school.. I would totally disagree.. I managed to do a lot more than just study computer science.. Also, along the way I met a lot of my future co-workers. Also, despite my serious hatred of the math pre-recs at the time.. I have found being able to pull some fairly unskilled numeric analysis out once in a while is a handy thing. In the long run I was less annoyed with the Math requirements than I ever was with the non math requirements..
So, should a graduate that cannot find a job be able to hold the university responsible? No.. You only get out of a university education what you put into it. Interestingly enough cash is probably the least important input into the system. No one who has spent 4 years studying a throw away degree should expect that finding work with that will be easy. Secondly they should really do the math when they are blowing 60k on acquiring a degree that will get them a job that pays 35k.. They should expect to have a hard time managing the loan payments. Meanwhile the folks who went into *hard* majors and had to spend 4 years working their asses off still have to deal with some less than awesome pay when they are getting started, but they will hit mid-career pay rates a lot sooner, and they will be a lot higher..

K already did thanks

I have heard that line of reasoning before, but that just means the cronies get away with it. Think of it as a tax refund for bad government.

All I can see is the promise of opportunity based on training.

caveat emptor, no?

Fraud does not have to be that specific. And clearly higher education in the US has been committing fraud, of course so has most of the government.

Not crazy at all.
Sucks, doesn't it?

The best we can hope for is to stop the redistribution from continuing.

+1

Good catch, and funny reply.
+1

Call me crazy, but if we sue as taxpayers.. where is the payout coming from?

“What Gets Rewarded Gets Done” is the Greatest Management Principle in the World as per the book by Professor Michael LeBeouf. And he nailed it!

Universities are businesses. Universities are rewarded by having large student populations paying high tuition – NOT on the number of students who actually learn something useful.

Their presidents, administrators, and faculty are paid fat salaries from the money students spend taking classes. In order to charge higher tuition, the schools need to get everyone on board with student loans – that way the student is responsible for paying back the loan rather then the university.

No one at the university is paid based on how well students actually acquire useful knowledge. Grades are given more freely in order to make the student feel good about themselves rather then to reflect that learning occurred, because if you flunk someone he will drop out and thus stop paying the tuition.

That "hear" should ne spelled "here," not "hear." Hear?
Bwahaha!
I am dino!
Hear me roar!
Obnoxious, aint I?
Hm, wonder if you'll catch that in time to edit.

And I for one am glad you're hear to blab.

Sad but true.

In 1969 I was kicked out of college and got drafted. As we got on the bus, a worried dude asked the draft office lady, "Are they drafting anyone into the Marines?" Lady said, "Don't worry, they haven't taken any Marines for a whole month." When we got to first stop base, we were told, "This is the end of the month when we take Marines." I was one of five picked. That dude wasn't.
In 1971 I was honorably discharged corporal promoted under meritorious conditions. That looked great on resumes. I also finished college under the GI bill.
In 1982, being in the service gave me five extra points used on some kind of scale for the Bama DOC to send me to the corrections academy in Selma next door to where state troopers are trained.
Now I'm retired with time on my hands to blab too much.

“universities should definitely educate students on the seriousness of borrowing money in relation to their career choices.”
If you get a federal student loan, most colleges put you through a series of steps to make sure you know your responsibilities, including a meeting with the finance department in a class-like setting laying out how important it is that you don’t ask for more money than you need. Attendance at a meeting of this type is mandatory before you can get your loan approved. Before the government took over student loans, banks just passed out loans like candy to any student that provided a co-signer.(Bank of America was one of the worst!) We were heading for another financial bubble-collapse. Now, students are made fully aware, there is no way to get out paying a loan back. So, while I wish we all had enough money in our pockets to send all our children to college, the truth is, we enabled our lil darlings every which way we could to take out loans they couldn’t repay, putting our homes, savings accounts, and retirement funds on the line. Well, them, not me. My kids were too independent and prudent to put me through what I saw many our friends and neighbors going through. Bless their lil hearts.

Good for you!

You will do well.

Nah, the bitter tone is because I also do political satire ;)

Ok, I now completely understand the bitter tone of your responses. This is where the system is flawed...the honest tax-payers carry the weight of the uneducated. I wonder if loans would be better issued to students if they were approached like a business loan. Collateral, a thought-through plan and some kind of proof that the plan can be carried out successfully. I will agree that loans are given too freely to young students who don't understand what they're doing, and are ill-equipped to pay the loans back. I will say that universities should definitely educate students on the seriousness of borrowing money in relation to their career choices.

I have not taken a loan out because I am not interested in taking money that isn't mine to then have to pay it back with 24% interest. It doesn't seem realistic for feasible to me, I am fairly young but I am not stupid. The moment I considered taking out a student loan (with every intention of paying it back) my school told me I would need to take a debt management class prior to accepting the loan because interest rates are skyrocketing and students are unable to manage their money. The term 'debt management' was enough to scare me off and I hung up the phone. So, I will continue to pay as I go.

Now, throw in shenanigans like what Cornel West pulled the other day, affirming the reputation of the Ivy League as a petri dish for Marxist agitators and I believe it could be claimed that Universities actively sabotage the job prospects of their graduates.

What right thinking businessman *wants* to hire an agitator?

DB, please let me buy you a drink.

Yes, yes, YES!!!

If you are taking classes on your own dime, then go for it!

"then I wonder how much work they put into their education"
I have seen this first hand and agree.
My issue is that a clear majority of these disinterested people are going on the tax payer dime.
They get out, are unemployable, default on their loan, and we as the taxpayer are on the hook for it.

I was very close with the math department at the one of the state schools in CT.
The profs had to teach remedial math, like fractions - at university level - financed by tax payer backed student loans - to disinterested students who believed that a better job awaited.

I'm not interested in standing up for the disinterested, I'm interested in stopping the system that gives them *our money* to go learn fractions because a mythical better job awaits on the horizon.

A contract can be formed without writing. And fraud is not limited to contracts.

The Universities are not saying we will give you a great education, they are promising better jobs and jobs. Fraud in the Inducement is well established common law doctrine and I think it fits.