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Online foreign
degree: The ROI factor
Favoured by
working professionals, distance education has been a lucrative niche segment
in the educational industry. American varsities are now targeting Indian
students, but is an online foreign degree really worth it, asks Mohan
Babu
In my
previous write-up, I had talked about admissions to universities in the US
and also touched upon the topic of intricacies involved in acquiring student
visas. Along with the admissions and visas, a major factor to be considered
in making the decision of studying abroad is the cost of travel and stay.
For some students who do not wish to travel to faraway lands, there is an
alternative: distance education.
Distance
education (or correspondence course) as an academic offering from top
schools/universities has been around for some time now. Favoured by working
professionals, distance education has been a small, albeit lucrative niche
segment in the education industry. However, in the past few years, thanks to
the ubiquity of e-learning tools and access to the Internet, universities
and institutions in the West have been expanding their operations, either by
franchising their courses or by offering online programmes.
Many schools
in the US (as professional colleges are called), ranging from
top-of-the-line institutions to private academies, have jumped onto the
bandwagon, recognising the importance of distance education as a convenient
revenue stream. Private institutions like the University of Phoenix go as
far as to place banner advertisements in Web-portals of Indian newspapers
and websites. Some universities are tying up with Indian institutions by
offering their certifications to students who take up courses in local
campuses. Most universities are trying to expand by using the power and
convenience of the Internet by offering online courses.
The renewed
marketing by educational institutions, especially in a down economy in the
US, may be leading them to prospective students abroad. Indian students with
their penchant for “foreign degrees” are an attractive destination for
American universities. The universities are also targeting multinationals
and Indian companies who want to educate their employees in the American
system. For Indian companies, providing CBTs (computer based training) or
financing distance-learning courses for employees is an attractive
proposition since they experience very little downtime with employees
partaking in learning at their own pace (outside work hours). The companies’
benefit by educating employees in a multicultural educational system,
without incurring additional cost associated with foreign travel. Distance
education is also especially attractive for students wanting to enhance
their knowledge base without taking time off from their full-time jobs and
careers.
Distance
education and Web-based courses being offered by American universities does
not come cheap. For instance, the University of Phoenix has published its
course structure and fees online. For graduate degree courses leading to a
Masters’ degree, it charges about $505 per credit hour. A credit hour is the
units of course work akin to courses in a university. The school requires
about 46 credit hours for an MBA and about 37 credit hours for an MS in
technology. This translates to between $19,000 and $24,000 for a Masters’
degree from the university (i.e. between Rs 9 lakh and Rs 11.5 lakh).
This is
similar to the tuition that a full-time student in
the US would
pay for a degree from the university. Most regular universities that also
offer distance educational programmes charge similar fees arguing that the
course material and education offered in distance educational courses is
similar to that offered in a regular classroom setting.
Would I
recommend distance education offered by American universities, if so, to
whom? Students in India, especially those with little exposure to an
industry or those with little work experience hoping to get a “stamp of
approval” from an American university, wishing to get a much-needed break in
the job market on the basis of a certification alone will find themselves
highly disillusioned. I am not sure if employers in Bangalore (or even
Boston) are going to be impressed merely by a course or “graduation” from an
American college, especially if the course was done online via a distance
education programme. For such students, education, especially that acquired
from a foreign institution thousands of miles away will be more valuable if
acquired through a classroom setting with the interaction imbibed with
fellow students and in-class lectures. It will be sad to see honest, hard
working middle-class kids pawning their mother’s jewellery to pay some
foreign university for educational courses and certifications that they
cannot immediately market.
On the other
hand, a multinational company in Mumbai or Delhi will benefit immensely from
exposing its employees and emerging stars to American or British education
by sponsoring their online courses to learn skills that they can use
straight out of the box. For such a company, it will be doubly beneficial
since employees could acquire education during their spare-time outside work
hours with the knowledge being applied on the job. Productivity will be
enhanced with very little disruption to the regular operations.
Education is
a precious tool in the hands of practitioners and students and there is
little doubt that education will help broaden horizons and expand one’s
marketability. However, Indian students, parents, employers and others who
are going to pay for education and courses being done from some distance
learning institutions, will do well to do a thorough ROI (return on
investment) and market analysis before embarking on such a venture. What I
mean to imply is that before spending lakhs of rupees, it is better if
students ensure that they have the wherewithal to market and make timely use
of the knowledge acquired.
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