I recently read a great article by Seth Godin titled - The Coming Melt-Down in Higher Education. If you don't read Seth Godin's blog, I highly recommend it. And, this article on the problems with higher education is a great read. And, it happens to mirror my thought on the state of college education as well.
Rising College Tuition Costs From 1978-2008
Seth believes that colleges' rising tuition costs and myopic focus on U.S. News and World Report Rankings are making college less useful for stellar students. In particular Seth makes the following claims:
- College only focus on average students now, not the best of the best
- College tuition has risen much faster than wages
- College rankings say little about the quality of education students receive
- There is very little correlation between the success a college grad will have graduating from lower tuition school versus a higher tuition school
- College accreditation standards are watering down the product offered by colleges
I couldn't agree more with Seth.
College Has Not Changed with the U.S. Economy
I feel that the U.S. economy has revolutionized itself and colleges have not kept up. The U.S. economy today is not being driven by large corporations hiring massive amount of knowledge workers for middle management positions. While this might have been the case in the 1960s through the 1990s, this is no longer the state of our economy.
Today's economy is being driven by small business IDEA Workers. These are entrepreneurs who figure out how to create things - better services, better products. But, our education system still assumes that college grads will graduate and get hired by a Fortune 500 company where they will work for the next 30 years. Who does this anymore?
I recently read in Dan Miller's 48 Days to the Work You Love
College Tuition is Not Justified By the Expected Wages Earned
With college tuition going up as fast as it did, the economics of a college degree just aren't rational right now. I had friends graduate from college with $100,000 in debt and a Bachelors in Education degree where they were going to make $40,000 a year. That just doesn't make sense. And, I think that consumers are starting to realize it.
I was hopelessly naive about college debt when I went to college and law school. Thank God I got a job at a large law firm out of law school that allowed me to recover from my mistake, but I can tell you this, I will not let my kids make this same mistake. I think that there are a lot of Gen-Xers and Gen-Ys that feel the same way as me. Colleges will be fundamentally changed by these parents who will not allow their children to take on mountains of college debt.
Colleges Need to Focus on Teaching Again
For years the focus of college professors has been on everything, except for teaching. College professors are expected to get grants, conduct research and write academic articles on obscure, academic issues. This is their focus - not preparing their students for jobs in the real world.
Colleges must get back to teaching. Parents today know about this problem and will become demanding consumers for good education. College cannot just be a 4 year vacation at a luxury resort that gives you lots of connections. No, the product must be excellent. And, that product is teaching students, and preparing them to enter the real work force.
It will be interesting to see how college education changes in the next 10 - 20 years. I hope that I am right about my predictions.
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Yeah, I have to agree with most of that. My experience has been that the degree rapidly decays in importance to the working world as one gains experience. It is very important in getting that first job, but with later jobs, the prior experience is more important.
I graduated from a State College, with no debt, and therefore I came out ahead financially. In my entire working career as an engineer, not one person ever asked for any transcripts, or even cared where I graduated from. They cared about what I could do for them in the real world. I doubt I would have done any better by graduating from a prestigious school.
I think part of the problem is that people think they should only go to the “really good” schools, when I reality job hunters are rarely asked which college they went to. People might put it on their resume, but it’s not like it’s an interview question or anything.
Jackie´s last blog ..Do It Now
College is overrated. I’m glad I went to University, and I learned a lot, though I did not have to pay such exorbitant sums (although I did waste a lot of time because we also have 3-4 years of technical school before uni, which is the overrated college that I’m referring to and THAT was useless).
I’ll encourage my kid to go to uni simply because I do think it is valuable, but I will encourage them to take life lessons on the way too: investing, building your money, living on a budget, etc…!
Kevin@InvestItWisely´s last blog ..A Wise Challenge
College is a must if you want to work in any knowledge industry company. I do feel too many people attend college simply because they ‘have to’. If you want to major in drama go to in state to the flagship university. Cost will be a serious problem shortly. Welcome to the next credit crisis.