Yesterday was a "National Day of Action" for the Canadian Federation of Students to rail against rising tuition fees and the cost of post-secondary education. The CFS complains that the students are forced to rely on student loans to pay for school, and argue that education should not be a "debt sentence" for students. (Kudos on that clever line)
While I admit that higher education is an expensive activity, I'd argue that it should be, and that the real cost is actually much higher. Taxpayers already subsidize the majority of tuition costs for students, which would be 2 or 3 times more expensive if that was taken away. Plus, there are many opportunities to receive bursaries and scholarships for students that excel---I received open scholarships which paid for probably half of my tuition---and universities and colleges should be pressured to increase their spending on those programs.
However, the real problem isn't that education is too expensive, it's that there isn't enough of a return on investment. And making it cheaper will only exacerbate this problem. Education should be something that takes an investment of time, energy and money, for it gives skills and credentials that will further careers and future salaries. The problem is that this ROI is diminishing.
In the effort to be fair, to make education a "right," we've flooded the market. This 'educational inflation' made it easier to get into university, easier to get good grades, and easier to get that BA or BS or BBA, or whatever alphabet soup you were aiming for. But it has also made it harder to get a job. Degrees are run of the mill now, handed out by increasingly shady institutions to increasingly greater numbers of students. An undergraduate degree doesn't stand out any more, and so people are completing their Masters and writing theses in art history and communications and are still finding that there are no jobs. The answer to this problem isn't to pump out more degrees.
Canada already has the highest proportion of university graduates per capita in the world, even with the crushing burden of highly subsidized and tax-deductible tution fees. Instead of increasing our lead in this area, we should be focusing on making sure degrees handed out in Canada mean something, and that education is preparing students for the real world. We should be emphasizing excellence in the public education system, not passing through failing students and creating more holidays and vacations for students. We should be identifying the industries and skills where we have huge gaps in knowledge and put together comprehensive plans to get students to learn trades, study math, excel in science and power our future economy. While it may be easier to promise students the moon, it would be a lot more productive to tell them the honest truth.
While I admit that higher education is an expensive activity, I'd argue that it should be, and that the real cost is actually much higher. Taxpayers already subsidize the majority of tuition costs for students, which would be 2 or 3 times more expensive if that was taken away. Plus, there are many opportunities to receive bursaries and scholarships for students that excel---I received open scholarships which paid for probably half of my tuition---and universities and colleges should be pressured to increase their spending on those programs.
However, the real problem isn't that education is too expensive, it's that there isn't enough of a return on investment. And making it cheaper will only exacerbate this problem. Education should be something that takes an investment of time, energy and money, for it gives skills and credentials that will further careers and future salaries. The problem is that this ROI is diminishing.
In the effort to be fair, to make education a "right," we've flooded the market. This 'educational inflation' made it easier to get into university, easier to get good grades, and easier to get that BA or BS or BBA, or whatever alphabet soup you were aiming for. But it has also made it harder to get a job. Degrees are run of the mill now, handed out by increasingly shady institutions to increasingly greater numbers of students. An undergraduate degree doesn't stand out any more, and so people are completing their Masters and writing theses in art history and communications and are still finding that there are no jobs. The answer to this problem isn't to pump out more degrees.
Canada already has the highest proportion of university graduates per capita in the world, even with the crushing burden of highly subsidized and tax-deductible tution fees. Instead of increasing our lead in this area, we should be focusing on making sure degrees handed out in Canada mean something, and that education is preparing students for the real world. We should be emphasizing excellence in the public education system, not passing through failing students and creating more holidays and vacations for students. We should be identifying the industries and skills where we have huge gaps in knowledge and put together comprehensive plans to get students to learn trades, study math, excel in science and power our future economy. While it may be easier to promise students the moon, it would be a lot more productive to tell them the honest truth.
4 comments:
I'm not sure there's a clear connection between the increased number of B.A.'s and their concomitant devaluation.Increasing, or maintaining high tuition fees will make degrees more exclusive but not necessarily more valuable.
On the contrary, making post secondary education more financially accessible increases competition for entrance and theoretically produces a higher standard for earned degrees because only the most academically gifted will be earning them. Employers would be able to choose from a greater pool of more talented candidates.
Conversely, if ability to pay high tuition fees were the main prerequisite for post secondary accessibility then, again theoretically, a B.A. would reflect privilege rather than any kind of academic rigour.
Education is more than a luxury; it is a responsibility that society owes to itself.
The ease of achieving a degree is not simply due to the cost, there has also been substantial grade inflation over the past decades, with it being easier to achieve high grades in post-secondary education. I maintain that more degrees, to more students, with easier standrds, from less and less established institutions is not a recipe for excellence or success.
I tend to agree that grades and standards have become inflated but academic standards and high tuition fees may be two separate issues.
The fact that a student may be unable to afford post secondary education makes the standards question academic (pun intended). :-)
Allow easier access to post secondary education and the standards will rise since there are only so many places to put bums in seats (pun intended). :-) Reform entrance qualifications starting with eliminating the bonehead remedial reading/writing courses almost 20% of college students are forced to take because they come out of high school functionally illiterate.
Harvard/Princeton/Yale although expensive, use extensive criteria to screen applicants. Does the high tuition cost drive the standards or does competition? There may be some overlap, of course.
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