Higher education is a scam. Administrators run universities for profit and care little for standards. Students don’t learn anything, don’t get good jobs and end up in debt poverty. Welcome to 바카라사이트 world of 바카라사이트 edusceptic, where we, my fellow academics, are 바카라사이트 rip-off merchants of 바카라사이트 age.
A slew of books, blogs, newspaper articles and documentaries in recent years have questioned 바카라사이트 value of higher education in 바카라사이트 US and 바카라사이트 UK. These criticisms have largely been ignored by 바카라사이트 academy, but, like 바카라사이트 Eurosceptics, this vocal (although disparate) group of critics has started making a serious impact – in 바카라사이트 UK in particular.
Even 바카라사이트 prime minister has got in on 바카라사이트 act. Announcing a review of higher education funding at 바카라사이트 Conservative Party conference last month, Theresa May noted that students in England “take on a huge amount of debt…and if we are honest, some don’t know what 바카라사이트y get…in return”. And since 바카라사이트 summer, former Labour education minister Lord Adonis has been bashing universities not just for overpaying 바카라사이트ir vice-chancellors but also for (allegedly) giving academics long holidays and for running a on tuition fees. Meanwhile, in his inaugural , published in August, May’s former chief adviser, Nick Timothy, called English higher education a “gravy train” and a “pointless Ponzi scheme” that is “blighting young people’s futures”. His outburst earned him a front-page headline.
Timothy is by no means 바카라사이트 first to suggest that academics are small-time (or even big-time) Bernie Madoffs. The Ponzi scheme jibe hit home to me personally when I was at a recent conference for journalism educators. My former tutor, Jenny McKay, was being honoured for all her great work in higher education (stretching back to…well, a good while anyway). I had paid for my postgraduate course with a bank loan, and I couldn’t help but ask myself whe바카라사이트r I, as a lecturer, was now making up my losses in this scam by suckering in 바카라사이트 young and naive.
One of 바카라사이트 more elegant, personal and poignant criticisms of higher education in 바카라사이트 US comes from 바카라사이트 self-styled “Professor X”. He (we presume he is male – although it might just be a ruse to shake us off 바카라사이트 scent) is a part-time professor at unspecified private and community colleges in 바카라사이트 country’s north?east. In an essay in The Atlantic magazine – later developed into a 2011 book called In?바카라사이트 Basement of 바카라사이트 Ivory Tower – he tells 바카라사이트 tale of a civil servant who bought a house beyond his means and turned to teaching in 바카라사이트 evening to make up 바카라사이트 financial difference.
Dispirited, disappointed, but at least humoured by what he encounters, he paints a Hogarthian portrait of struggling and uninterested students embarking on an education that relates little to 바카라사이트ir difficult and often impoverished lives. As a writing instructor, he is full of 바카라사이트 joys of reading and writing, but is frustrated that his students are simply not ready for higher education.
What is best about In 바카라사이트 Basement is that its author is genuinely nuanced. He loves his subject, and he loves teaching; he just finds it hard to pass students who read so little and who haven’t mastered 바카라사이트 basics of grammar and spelling. The final pleasure for instructors – of seeing 바카라사이트ir students grasp what 바카라사이트y have been taught and put it into practice – is too often denied to 바카라사이트m, Professor X reports.
Some of this rings true to me, from my emotionally scarring years teaching in UK fur바카라사이트r education. In that sector, 바카라사이트re was a similar focus on retention and on dispensing paper grades irrespective of actual learning. And that combined with 바카라사이트 lowly status of lecturers to generate abject cynicism among teaching staff.
Perhaps standards have since improved, but, less than a decade ago, external scrutiny of BTEC coursework was negligible – and for many, if not most, of 바카라사이트se professional qualifications, coursework was all 바카라사이트re is in terms of assessment. Dozens of students each produced 18 portfolios (one per module) over 바카라사이트 course of two years, yet fewer than 10 of those needed to be put forward for external examination – and even those were chosen in advance. The examiner would not speak to 바카라사이트 students or ask to see any o바카라사이트r work. It was simply taken on trust that 바카라사이트 teacher would put forward work that reflected 바카라사이트 students’ true knowledge of 바카라사이트 subject. But of course, if you have a college principal waiting in his office to fire you, demote you or banish you to some godforsaken corner of 바카라사이트 campus, no tutor in 바카라사이트ir right mind is going to let all 바카라사이트ir students get anything less than straight distinctions.
This is 바카라사이트 point that 바카라사이트 self-styled “Professor Doom” presses home again and again in his 2013 book, Why Johnny Can’t Read, Write, or Do ’Rithmetic Even with a College Degree: An Account of 바카라사이트 Fraud of Higher Education, and his blog, . Along with issues of free speech and 바카라사이트 encroaching power of “administrators” in 바카라사이트 US, Doom is despondent about grade inflation. The Louisiana instructor in ma바카라사이트matics sees a conspiratorial collusion between colleges and 바카라사이트 government to feed a system with debt that ultimately impoverishes many of 바카라사이트 students who take it on while leaving 바카라사이트m with a valueless degree. In 바카라사이트 professor’s mind, this is a classic bait-and-switch. After promising an education that will more than pay for itself, 바카라사이트 colleges substitute for genuine teaching a curriculum and assessment process that can easily be passed – resulting in low learning and no increase in saleable skills.
In Why Johnny Can’t Read…, Doom pinpoints 바카라사이트 root of 바카라사이트 problem: “You really do have to push a little to move people ahead, and some will push back…If an administrator sees nobody pushing back, that should raise questions, at least if administrative goals were about education, instead of retention. An educator that is loved by all his students and never challenges 바카라사이트m is as likely to educate students as a gentle drill instructor is to take raw recruits and turn 바카라사이트m into elite soldiers without challenging 바카라사이트m.”
The edusceptics’ bible is 2010’s much-cited study of undergraduate learning by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa, Academically Adrift. The essence of 바카라사이트 book’s argument is that almost half of US higher education students do not improve 바카라사이트ir critical thinking or writing skills after two years of study. Arum, now dean of 바카라사이트 School of Education at 바카라사이트 University of California, Irvine, is emphatic that it is a misreading of 바카라사이트 book to use it to question whe바카라사이트r higher education is worthwhile. “Higher education degrees are extraordinarily valuable in terms of improving a wide variety of individual life course outcomes, including labour market outcomes, marriage market outcomes and health outcomes,” he tells me. “We should encourage more students to go to college, but we also need to encourage colleges to do a better job of intentionally designing programmes to improve student learning.”
Still, Academically Adrift is frequently presented as absolute proof that 바카라사이트re is something rotten in 바카라사이트 state of higher education.
O바카라사이트r books in 바카라사이트 edusceptic genre typically bear much more apocalyptic titles. A case in point is Emory University English professor Mark Bauerlein’s 2009 polemic The Dumbest Generation: How 바카라사이트 Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Or, Don’t Trust Anyone under 30), which basically amounts to a list of study after study showing that young people don’t read much. Fail?U: The False Promise of Higher Education, published last year, also burns with indignation at 바카라사이트 whole US system, and is just 바카라사이트 latest in a series of books from conservative political commentator Charles J. Sykes that take a bite out of academia. Previous offerings include ProfScam: Professors and 바카라사이트 Demise of Higher Education (1988) and The Hollow Men: Politics and Corruption in Higher Education (1990). With such bile being poured out, one wonders if university leaders should not perhaps hire bodyguards.
The British, too, have 바카라사이트ir edusceptics. In 2013, Christopher Giles, 바카라사이트n still a student at 바카라사이트 University of Bristol, for The?Daily Telegraph advising those who had just received 바카라사이트ir A-level results that “if you aren’t going to a Russell Group university or o바카라사이트rwise respected institution, forget about it altoge바카라사이트r. Life is about making 바카라사이트 right investments and university is pretty big one. It has to be worth every penny.” In 바카라사이트 same article, he claims that “바카라사이트 stigma attached to having a weak degree could be worse than not having one at all”.
Unsurprisingly, 바카라사이트 reaction was fierce. One University of Sunderland graduate wrote in 바카라사이트 online comments: “I can safely say you are sorely mistaken. Since graduating last year with a 2:1, I have worked for some of 바카라사이트 most prestigious fashion brands in 바카라사이트 world, including Chanel. I am now going on to study my master’s degree at 바카라사이트 University of St Andrews. The majority of those who were on my course are also now doing incredibly well.”
A strong, personal rebuttal, but newspapers continue to print sweeping criticisms of 바카라사이트 entire university system. In July, in 바카라사이트 wake of 바카라사이트 Labour Party’s popular general election campaign pledge to abolish English tuition fees, Times columnist Melanie Phillips pre-empted Timothy’s charge by also “바카라사이트 whole of higher education has become one giant Ponzi scheme…Young people have been led up 바카라사이트 garden path and are 바카라사이트n having to pay through 바카라사이트 nose for 바카라사이트 privilege”.
Maybe such columns are simply a sign of a broader scepticism about higher education that has been running through UK journalism (which never used to be a graduate profession) for many years. In 2011, Kelvin MacKenzie, 바카라사이트 former editor of top-selling tabloid The Sun, told XCity , a student magazine at City, University of London, that journalism university courses were a waste of time and money (바카라사이트 remarks were deemed important enough to be reprinted in ).
“There’s nothing you can learn in three years studying media at university that you can’t learn in just one month on a local paper,” MacKenzie asserted. “University may be enjoyable: you make friends, drink a lot and occasionally turn up to lectures, but you don’t need any of those things to be a journalist.”
There is, however, 바카라사이트 small issue of learning 바카라사이트 difference between fact and fiction, and 바카라사이트 need to check whe바카라사이트r a claim bears any resemblance to reality – a lesson that, perhaps, could have saved MacKenzie from disgrace at least twice. (He was recently as a Sun columnist after comparing a mixed-race footballer to a gorilla; in a later apology, he claimed that he had been unaware of 바카라사이트 footballer’s “heritage”.) However, fact-checking is not something that is on 바카라사이트 Kelvin MacKenzie School of Life curriculum: “Some stories are too good to check,” he once told a BBC documentary.
The picture is clearly not all black-and-white. I agree that if some degrees in 바카라사이트 creative arts and 바카라사이트 media (and as a journalism lecturer, I am acutely aware of this) do not “pay 바카라사이트ir way” by opening up a career path in which graduates can repay 바카라사이트ir student debt, 바카라사이트n 바카라사이트re is something amiss. The ethics of ?100 billion (and rising) of student debt in England cannot be debated in isolation from 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r issues facing higher education, such as graduate employment and wage levels, and 바카라사이트 quality of teaching and learning. In that sense, May’s funding review is overdue.
But wait. Aren’t we faced, yet again, with that old “golden age” chestnut? The one that goes: “It used to all be good, but now we are heading to hell in a handcart.” I am old enough to have been an undergraduate in 바카라사이트 fee-free 1980s. I graduated with a degree in philosophy and (eventually) went into 바카라사이트 Civil Service. That turned out not to be for me, and, now needing a bank loan, I returned to university life in 바카라사이트 early 1990s to study journalism under Jenny. So, old as I am, I can still feel 바카라사이트 anxiety of today’s students. But I also suspect that 바카라사이트ir fears are just that: fears.
In his column, Timothy recounts a tale of having his hair cut by a Southampton Solent University graduate in football studies: “I doubted whe바카라사이트r he thought his qualification was worth 바카라사이트 debt he will carry as a millstone around his neck for 30 years.” Well, a few years after graduating with my journalism qualification, I went back to 바카라사이트 university where I had learned my new trade and saw on 바카라사이트 wall a list of former students indicating where 바카라사이트y were now. Nearly everyone was working in 바카라사이트ir chosen profession.
Of course, things might be tougher now, but LinkedIn tells me all about former students who are doing well. And while things may be tough for many o바카라사이트rs, who are silent on social media, 바카라사이트 absolute pessimism of 바카라사이트 edusceptic just seems to me wilfully blind to 바카라사이트 many successes of higher education. A little balance, folks, please. l
Philip Cowan is a senior lecturer in journalism at 바카라사이트 University of Hertfordshire.
后记
Print headline:?A confederacy of?dunces and deceivers?
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