The cost to educate children in North America and Europe is skyrocketing and putting enormous pressures on the fiscal health of European and North American governments.

In Europe the lavish welfare state includes almost free education and very little time is spent on thinking about how the massive and looming debt crises will be solved.

One reason for these expanding welfare budget programs is the long period of time it takes to educate and draw the new graduates in the workforce. This also leads to a delay in marriage and child bearing and therefore considerable resources and time are being spent on education without the intended benefits.

One way to solve this problem is to increase the number of undergraduate programs which can be completed in 2.5 years instead of 4 or more years. This means that students will be able to save considerable amount of money on their debt by shrinking the program duration and there will be savings from annual 8-10% inflation in tuition and other costs which students now incur from their 4 or more years of education.

Degrees with shorter duration but more more intensive course load means less time will be spent on television, computers and drinking lattes, and more investment in getting good grades and entering sooner into the workforce. The debt and welfare problems in North America and Europe will see considerable easing if this prescription is implemented.

Similar strategy can be used for obtaining Master’s degrees where the program duration can be shrunk from 2 or 1.5 years to just one year with greater course work intensity. Governments will save billions in this manner.