With all due respect to the policy commission board. In the column of your highest rank, as a senior college student, I will be mentioning some problems and most important crisis that today’s higher education is facing. Hundreds and thousands of books have been published and going to be published in the future that shed light on the crisis of higher education, but did any of these books change the higher education the way we look today? College is as old as this country is, and been around for about centuries now, and the higher education crisis goes back all the way from searching for Utopia to present day. Respected policy commission board, what has changed? Colleges became more and more as corporate businesses, Students became as consumers, administration took over faculty, money turned these institutions in to greed, presidents start worrying about their pockets and dramatic shifting of cost to attend today’s college became almost impossible to ignore. However if it’s a liberal arts college, a four year typical college with dorms or it’s a two year vocational school, all institutions share a common problem and that is the greed of money.
Respected policy commission board , these are some of the main crisis that we are facing in almost every institution today regardless of institutions being rich or poor. There might be a lot of solutions to the higher education crisis out there but I have a different plan in proposing some solutions that you might be interested in. One of them is how to handle or face corporatization and we all know that college itself is a business and there is no way that this is going to be controlled or going to vanish over the time, but it is going to be worse than what it is now. Throughout this ess...
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...stand something about the genealogy of these ideas and practices, about the historical processes from which they have emerged, the tragic cost when societies fail to defend them, and about alternative ideas both within the Western tradition and outside it.”( Delbanco pp. 31). According to the book the moral/ethical imperatives are for the modern graduate is college should be more than just a winnows and is best from the rest. This is the place for students where they discover their own ideas and fight for the meaningful life out of them. Delbanco also mentions that it’s the responsibility of future generations that they protect and preserve the institutions and democracy depends on these people who are well educated, and democratic values and morals depend on well-educated and future generations that can bring peace, happiness, justice and respect to the community.
In "Becoming a Real Person", Davis Brooks weighs on the notion of the purpose of college. He claims that there are three ways that college aims to lead us. The cognitive objective teaches us knowledge and how to correctly use it, the moral role helps us build a unique individual self, and the commercial role leads us toward a future career. These three roles play a part in improving an individual's future prospects. While I agree on the importance these roles take, Brooks undermines the significance of moral education in higher education.
The article, The Value of Higher Education Made Literal by scholar Stanley Fish focuses on sharing his opinion of higher education and what it has become in recent years. Mr. Fish’s argument is essentially over the “logic of privatization” where students are pictured as “investors” or “consumers” in courses of study that maximize successful employment outcomes. He also believes arts, humanities, and social sciences are overlooked while study courses in science, technology, and clinical medicine are prioritized. Fish also strongly believes the value of higher education has changed due to the desires of students over time, desires of becoming extremely financially secure enough to buy more than needed to justify years of money and hard work applied when in school.
The American Education system needs to check their purpose and refocus students back on the reason for furthering their education. Although, many colleges are known for many amenities and student activities, college students need to focus on the issues at hand and conquer them with knowledge and compassion for humankind. Americans need to realize that student debt is a national crisis, and the best way to make a change is be involved and responsible for every cost during your education career. As a responsible student, know where your tuition money goes and question changes that are going on at school, students pay for the experience they should know what is
In recent years, many have debated whether or not a college education is a necessary requirement to succeed in the field of a persons’ choice and become an outstanding person in society. On one hand, some say college is very important because one must contribute to society. The essay Three Reasons College Still Matters by Andrew Delbanco shows three main reasons that students should receive their bachelor’s degree. On the other hand, many question the point of wasting millions of dollars on four years or maybe more to fight for highly competitive jobs that one might not get. Louis Menand wrote an article based on education titled Re-Imagining Liberal Education. This article challenges the main thought many americans have after receiving a secondary education. Louis Menand better illustrates the reasons why a student should rethink receiving a post secondary education better than Andrew Delbanco’s three reasons to continue a person’s education.
When the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony founded the first college in America, Harvard, in 1636, it marked the beginning of college as the backbone to the American Dream (“About Harvard” ). Around the world, America is coveted for the “American Dream” in which someone can go from deep poverty, to unbelievable wealth, all by getting an education which allows a person to obtain any job and reach any economic level. The article “Peter Thiel Thinks You should skip college, and He’ll Even Pay For Your Trouble; The famous disrupted says overpriced universities hold back innovation, and what's to rewrite education to his liking” by Tom Clynes argues people should not attend college because it is a hindrance to innovation, while the article
The critical challenge within in today’s society is that college tuition should be free or if not free, more affordable for all students. Certainly, higher education should not be considered a luxury where only the wealthy could afford, but an opportunity for all caste systems. It must be an accessible and affordable opportunity for all students in order for them to invest in their education. Higher education is important because it provides more careers to choose from than the careers offered without having a college degree. Ultimately, the issue here is whether it is right to make college tuition more affordable for the students.
To being with, college students today are economic pressure by school system and because of that student have become enslaved by financial aid department. This is an excellent quote by Zinsser he states: “they are the authentic voices of a generation that is panicky to succeed” (Zinsser 449). Student are spending more money than the actual value of their degree, on average student are spending 20-30 thousand each year just for tuition. Recently
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, college tuition and relevant fees have increased by 893 percent (“College costs and the CPI”). 893 percent is a very daunting percentage considering that it has surpassed the rise in the costs of Medicare, food, and housing. As America is trying to pull out of a recession, many students are looking for higher education so they can attain a gratified job. However, their vision is being stained by the dreadful rise in college costs. College tuition is rising beyond inflation. Such an immense rise in tuition has many serious implications for students; for example, fewer students are attending private colleges, fewer students are staying enrolled in college, and fewer students are working in the fields in which they majored in.
Since the 1980’s the cost of attending colleges have increased rapidly. Rising costs of for Medicare, highways and prisons have caused many states to reduce a percentage of their budget for higher education. Colleges and Universities currently face a very serious challenge:
This shift in university life has caused the emergence of a more focused and hard-working student body. There are those from past generations who will look at the happenings of colleges today and ridicule this change. And even after moving through the nostalgic haze that surrounds the memories of the past, the differences can still be seen, but it should be known that today's students are just adapting to the system that has already been established for them. This systematic change is to be expected. Considering that the world is not the same as it was in the 1960s, why would we assume that an institution would be exactly the same as it was
The right and privilege to higher education in today’s society teeters like the scales of justice. In reading Andrew Delbanco’s, “College: What It Was, Is, and Should Be, it is apparent that Delbanco believes that the main role of college is to accommodate that needs of all students in providing opportunities to discover individual passions and dreams while furthering and enhancing the economic strength of the nation. Additionally, Delbanco also views college as more than just a time to prepare for a job in the future but a way in which students and young adults can prepare for their future lives so they are meaningful and purposeful. Even more important is the role that college will play in helping and guiding students to learn how to accept alternate point of views and the importance that differing views play in a democratic society. With that said, the issue is not the importance that higher education plays in society, but exactly who should pay the costly price tag of higher education is a raging debate in all social classes, cultures, socioeconomic groups and races.
Jon Marcus, an editor for the Hechinger Report, examines how long it will take for a college student to graduate and how it affects the cost of getting a college degree, “The Reason College Cost More than You Think”. Marcus was an online writer for Time in 2014, and he mostly writes about higher education, mostly it is about college. College cost more than a person thinks because of the length that a student will graduate college; courses that a college student takes time and expenses that need to be paid
The higher education system (or lack thereof) is not serving the country and its citizens. The increasing number of admission standards, exponential tuition increases, the financing of the cost through loans, and the boasting of turning students away all contribute to rising disparity between the quality of education that upper class families can afford compared to lower and middle income families. The rising costs of higher education in this country are problematic in that they fuel a disparity between economic classes. Capitulating the problem is the amount of debt college graduates have accrued at the time of graduation. The Institute for College Access and Success (2013) reported that 70% of graduates had and average of $29,400 of debt. This number primarily focuses on non-profit and private institutions. The average annual salary of a college graduate is $57,616 (United States Department of Labor, 2014). So many college graduates have accumulated a debt worth half of what their starting salary may end up being. The Institute for College Access and Success (2013) reported that 20% of that debt “is comprised of private loans, which are typically more costly and provide fewer consumer protections and repayment options than safer federal loans3” (p. 1). This is an oversimplification in that it is looking at a very general population. Based on the degree and the subsequent employment, income will vary as does the institution attended and the student’s economic status affect the overall individual debt.
Louis Menand, a professor of English and American literature at Harvard University presented three different theories for higher education in an article for The New Yorker named, Live and Learn: Why We Have College. Menand (2011) claims that the reasons for college are meritocratic, democratic, and vocational. These theories are great models for the purpose of higher education in our culture, at different points in our history. As a nation, there are definite intentions behind the way that instruction is conducted in our colleges and universities. The techniques adopted by institutions of higher education are no mistake and they are designed to serve a purpose. These methods evolve with time and shape the way that generations think and reason. In our generation, the purpose of higher education in our culture is to sustain the nation atop of the worldwide economy.
To emphasize the importance of the process of a university education Ciardi explains to the audience through rhetorical questions how a university education can help you in your civilization and substation of morals that have been set in place by previous generations. For an example Ciardi uses democratic and how it’s learned to demonstrate to the audience how your education isn't just meant to help you professionally, but in addition, in your personal life while at home with your family “But having finished the day’s work, what do you do with those other eight hours [while at home]…What sort of family will you be raising?” is a direct indication to the audience the point Ciardi is making. He wants the audience to think about future generations and how current morals will be carried on through them. Ciardi is expressing to the audience how a university education helps to make those eight hours of your life (that isn’t working or sleeping) significant and noteworthy by taking the time while you’re at a university completing your degree to actually read the books assigned because they will one day have great