Article: Students increasingly treat college as a transaction

[Anonymous]

Finally, the first post on DCUM I've seen where everyone agrees on something....the cost of education in this country is way too expensive!!!

[Anonymous]

When students told me that they were at college for the diploma, not the education, I realized I didn't want to be teaching anymore. Didn't read the article but the information technology revolution ruined the classroom. The first thing to happen was students expecting to be entertained in class, not educated. I just couldn't compete with social media.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Back when people read philosophy in college and the like, the assumption was that employers hired bright people and then trained them. The real issue today isn’t universities but employers who no longer provide any training. This puts us in the situation where either your university now teaches project management and data analysis or the student pays for boot camps and the like later on their own. The fault is really the employers who don’t want a broadly educated workforce. They just want serfs

NP. I actually think skills like project management and data analysis can be effectively taught alongside the philosophical ponderings and classes taken for pure intellectual pleasure. And that universities are well-placed to deliver a curriculum that integrates between clearly-identifiable skills (certifications, etc.) and less directly-provable general thinking, insight development, and communication skills.

Perhaps the way we bucket disciplines needs to change.

i agree that college has become too expensive to allow it to cling so fiercely to its medieval origins as an institution for preparing society's most literate (and rich) men for only a handful of professions.

Employers treat employees like serfs when they are a commodity...no special skills, no above-average thinking, little direct impact on innovation, productivity, or profit. It's not morally right, but the mere fact of employment is no guarantee of any higher goals on either side. I think it's more likely that universities can bend to provide more useful and intellectually-satisfying learning experiences vs. employers become more charitable about financing training than they have been lately.

Agree with all of this especially the "bucketing". Make requirements part liberal arts/critical thinking, part people & presentations, part technical SME.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even when I went to college in the 80's professors were held to zero standards. They cared more about research than teaching. They were terrible at teaching. My tuition literally was just being used to subsidize their research which is mostly garbage and advances nothing.

I wanted to go to college and learn from a teacher. But I didn't. I taught myself or hired tutors.

I would rather learn from a teacher than a professor and I wish there were colleges with the sole purpose of teaching the students.

The current college model is trash.

90s grad and this was my experience too. Outside of a couple of gem professors (typically adjuncts at that) I essentially taught myself the material. Now that tuition is 4x the cost it was then, is it any surprise students expect more bang for their buck?

Me too and I went to a T10 that people on dcum drool over. I came out jaded. Did ok career wise but feel I really just learned how to teach myself. Perhaps that is valuable after all.

[Anonymous]

Yes we live in a capitalist society. Everything will be viewed as transactional. Name something in our society that isn’t based on a consumer model.

[Anonymous]

I went to a wonderful SLAC in the late 90s. I am so glad I had the experience I did. Small college community and excellent professors who actually taught us. I worry for what my kid’s college experience and education will be like nowadays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes we live in a capitalist society. Everything will be viewed as transactional. Name something in our society that isn’t based on a consumer model.

You’re not wrong. Even churches utilize the pay-to-play model. It’s sick.

It’s sad when everything in a society veers towards a “what can you do for me” mentality. That’s why Americans struggle with higher incidences of depression, anxiety, poor eating habits, poor health, isolation, sadness, apathy, violent crime, declining education standards.

People are only engaged in something as far as they’re getting something out of it themselves. The needs of the community and what’s best for the community as a whole is no longer a concern at all. Higher education is finally beginning to reflect that.