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linguoboy wrote:Absolutely not. The policy may be different at some public institutions, but the elite private universities which the USA is known worldwide for would never allow that. You don't give away for free what the person in the next seat is paying $50,000 a year for. You might be able to sneak into a large lecture hall without being noticed, but in a smaller class you'd be challenged by the professor and--if necessary--removed by campus security. (The university I attended had one of the largest private security forces of any institution in the state.)
meidei wrote:I'd think what you are paying 50k a year is access to university services like scientific journals, a professor to grade your work and interact with you, people to write and grade your exams, and finally, a official legal degree. Certainly just someone listening to a lecture doesn't take anything away from the value of the degree.
Saim wrote:[flag=]en[/flag] At my university it's very common. I remember in one Polish class there were more people who were just coming to listen than to those who were signed up and would do the exam. Personally I'm going to Introduction to Basque
I think the problem comes from viewing universities as a place where people go to learn things. Openness and inclusion are beneficial to expanding horizons and educating people about the world. But that's not what people in the USA go to top universities for.
vijayjohn wrote:You can get permission from the prof to sit in on a class, though.
linguoboy wrote:Can you?
Lowena wrote:This. Also, a huge reason why our society is so fucked up.
1. Students are paying for the whole package. Lectures are part of that package.
2. Perception is as important as reality. It doesn't matter that allowing public access to lectures doesn't devalue degrees if the perception among your consumer base is that it does. (And when you're selling them a $200,000 product, that is a risk you can't afford.)
3. Running a university is expensive and the managers are looking for ways to monetise anything and everything they can. Everyone's trying to figure out distance learning right now; one thing they have figured out is that it involves streaming lectures to customers. So, again, you'd be giving away a product that the institution believes (even wrongly) that it can sell for money.
5. Private universities trade on exclusiveness. A central part of their ranking, in fact, is how many people they turn away. Letting non-Tuition Paying Units (or TPUs) onto your campus dilutes your brand.
linguoboy wrote:I think the problem comes from viewing universities as a place where people go to learn things. Openness and inclusion are beneficial to expanding horizons and educating people about the world. But that's not what people in the USA go to top universities for. They go for (a) an enjoyable experience and (b) to increase their earning power.
vijayjohn wrote:I mean, I guess increasing earning power is part of the motivation for Asians to go there
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