University of Michigan's Coursera Degrees

[sanantone]

I thought the goal of Coursera was to make education cheaper and more accessible. So, I cannot understand why University of Michigan feels the need to charge high tuition rates for degree programs hosted by a MOOC company that is simply going to run the same lecture videos over and over. These are the most expensive MOOC degree programs I've seen so far. 

Master of Applied Data Science
In-State: $923 per credit hour
Out-of-State: $1,243 per credit hour

https://www.coursera.org/degrees/master-...ence-umich

Master of Public Health 
In-State: $960 per credit hour
Out-of-State: $1060 per credit hour

https://www.coursera.org/degrees/mph-umich

They are expecting to offer scholarships to about half of the online data science students, but I don't know how much those scholarships typically are.

[cookderosa]

I thought the goal of Coursera was to make education cheaper and more accessible. So, I cannot understand why University of Michigan feels the need to charge high tuition rates for degree programs hosted by a MOOC company that is simply going to run the same lecture videos over and over. These are the most expensive MOOC degree programs I've seen so far. 

Master of Applied Data Science
In-State: $923 per credit hour
Out-of-State: $1,243 per credit hour

https://www.coursera.org/degrees/master-...ence-umich

Master of Public Health 
In-State: $960 per credit hour
Out-of-State: $1060 per credit hour

https://www.coursera.org/degrees/mph-umich

They are expecting to offer scholarships to about half of the online data science students, but I don't know how much those scholarships typically are.

What the heck???

I've been meaning to get in and study the new Coursera degrees- I've gotten various emails from them promoting the programs, but haven't bothered to look deeply. I can't imagine spending that kind of money just to use a MOOC as the portal- what am I missing??? Is there something that is a benefit to the user in some way that justifies the cost? Do they not offer these degrees online through the campus maybe - making this their online platform? Wow.
I can't imagine paying that kind of tuition, even for a master's. My master's tuition was higher than I wanted to pay and wasn't even near that cost. I'm just perplexed. The kind of ROI you'd need to justify the "investment" doesn't compute for me unless their graduates are all earning 6-figures.

[dfrecore]

RIDICULOUS!!

This is like that school offering for you to take SL courses for their own (expensive) tuition price, just to be able to get financial aid for them.

[sanantone]

I would think that using Coursera as their online platform would save money, and it probably does. They're just not passing on the savings to students. University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League, only charges $25k for their Coursera degree.

I know that University of Michigan is #4 in public health, but I couldn't spend that much on an MPH. My two master's and PhD will cost less than one of their master's degrees, and my degrees aren't even competency-based programs.

Georgia Tech and University of Texas are ranked high in the fields they're offering MOOC degrees in, and they're charging $10k and less.

[eriehiker]

I think that they feel that they will be able to sell this to people in other parts of the world. The goal here is not to make these programs more affordable. They probably also want to target people in the tech. industry who want a U of M degree, but want to continue to live in California and Seattle.

I do think that U of M is making a mistake in terms of social justice. Within the State of Michigan, Michigan State is viewed as the college of rural areas and small towns. People will often belittle the college as a bunch of crazy liberals. At the very least, Michigan could have provided these programs to Michigan residents for $25,000.

If you think that you have the solutions that can make the world better, why not price them so that the world can become better?

[posabsolute]

I don't feel this program is competitive in price at all. There isn't a whole lot of MOOC based master in data science but it isn't a selling point eitheir.. altho on the same site, you also have Illinois CS in data science for 21k.

When you feel the need to put right next to the price that half of the students will receive a scholarship, it's a telling sign.

[sanantone]

I don't feel this program is competitive in price at all. There isn't a whole lot of MOOC based master in data science but it isn't a selling point eitheir.. altho on the same site, you also have Illinois CS in data science for 21k.

When you feel the need to put right next to the price that half of the students will receive a scholarship, it's a telling sign.

It's funny because they said that the tuition is competitive, but I think they're almost twice as expensive as all the other Coursera and edX programs. They're four times as expensive as some of the programs.

[bluebooger]

this is one of the downfalls of financial aid

universities know people can easily get it so the universities keep prices high

[burbuja0512]

Having worked for a non-profit in the past and sat on the board at a different one, I can say that there is a considerable amount of groupthink in these scenarios.

All it takes is a closed room full of people with grandiose ideas to come up with a giant mistake like this.

[sanantone]

Coursera is a for-profit company, and the Regents of the University of Michigan is a government entity. There are many private nonprofits and public universities offering MOOC degrees for much less, so this is solely a Michigan issue.