In the past, people have enjoyed putting colleges in little towns as a source of economic strength. Moreover, parents of high school children took their families to visit college campuses as a form of summer vacation, adding tourism to the list of income opportunities. What happens when college no longer holds the sway that it formerly held, and students stop believing that a college education brings a decent income? The proof is in the pudding as University of Twente had one of the smallest university populations I had seen during the fall, well after the semester should have started.
A common myth about college is that if it were free, everyone would be involved and there would be a ridiculously educated population. However, people need to keep in mind that free or not, the true privilege of college is the time, and four years of paying into programs without necessarily earning income is not reality for most people. Getting into college may be difficult, but other than tuition, there are several aspects of college which could never be free, such as books, software, and materials. People would still need to work, make time for study, and graduate with a firm job offer to make the amount of time and money worth the effort.
Small-town universities also tend to be cloistered from the rest of the town so that students can experience somewhat of a monk-like experience, meaning focused entirely on study. Those were the days of yesteryear, and most of the time, students being young adults translates into recreation and socializing. For privileged students, this could mean networking, but for people who need to work while studying, it means that they have to factor in commute time. Public transportation is available, but in a town as small as Enschede, there are limited job options, and more people need to commute out of town rather than down the street. Again, this adds to the time needed to commit to degree completion.
The university has a focus on STEM, and should be bursting at the seams, but the reality is that even if the STEM classes are free–the university is public–the books and laboratory materials are not. The “utopia” of Europe depicts certain truisms, but people are struggling everywhere. Moreover, there is no such thing as a free-functioning society that nobody has to provide input to keep it moving. Small college towns are dying, and that is largely because the people who could have invested in making life more livable, chose to make life expensive, exclusive, and difficult to manage.
Chasing A Dying Empire 