Today in Higher Ed reading, Times Higher Education (THE) reports a researcher from Tokyo’s claim that conferences have become so expensive, academics are being priced out.
It is nearly the halfway point between NAFSA national conferences. At the last one, the first (hopefully) NAFSA conference I have attended, I learned a lot. I am lucky for the experience. I attended three extra workshops through which I earned certificates and I stayed for a total of 6 days.
In order to justify the length and time, I found ways to cut costs. I kept my budget low and managed to stick to it by renting an Airbnb with a mini fridge located a walkable distance from the conference, and spent a total of $40 on groceries that would constitute my breakfast and lunches for all 6 days.
The evening before the official conference begins, there are a number of networking cocktail hour events. They were all hosted in the Marriott hotel connected to the conference facility, with small bars along the sides of large rooms where people mingled. A beer cost $10, a glass of wine of course more. One of my colleagues did not see where we could serve ourselves water in plastic cups and subsequently paid $6 for a glass of water.
The NAFSA conference is among many conferences focusing on higher education, the specific realm being international education. That means that perhaps half of the conference’s 10,000+ attendees hail from higher education institutions (HEIs) around the world, most of which are not-for-profit. Many of the organizations that HEIs partner with are not-for-profit, too.
Regardless, the money originates from two places most of the time: student tuition or the government. In some cases you may have foundations, or even a few for-profit companies, funding research and educational projects related to international education. But even for-profit study abroad providers get their money from somewhere: students or the HEIs themselves, which brings us back to money from the students and the government.
Why, Marriott, are you charging education professionals $10 for a beer? Sure, we don’t have to drink during these mingling events (but for those of us who are shy, we sure would appreciate a boost of confidence from somewhere), but when we consider the costs to stay in hotels, to fly – it all adds up really quickly. And it’s all coming back to the same sources of income: the students or the government.
Christopher Pokarier (the researcher in Tokyo) makes a great point about academics being priced out of conferences, and he points to NAFSA specifically. I would argue that it’s even difficult for some of us from small, tuition-based institutions to get ourselves to networking events. NAFSA can feel inaccessible, but as my work is also in Career Services, I have the National Association for Colleges and Employers (NACE) to compare NAFSA to.
NACE is constantly hosting webinars, but they are typically $99 per hour-long webinar. Once in a long while they are free. Moreover, their national conferences are always somewhere fancy; they really seem to glam it up.
Employers, please look at the state of higher education. We are all concerned about the amount of student debt. High prices for important networking opportunities do not help. This means that conference sites may need to be humbled, and the hosts of these sites should really consider if they can cut educational institutions a break.