Due to challenging economic realities over the past decade, Higher Education has been forced to make itself more attractive to prospective students in order to remain functional, resulting in a transactional business environment between students and colleges. An ever-expanding corpus of mission statements and neatly manicured advertisements refers to students as ”customers,” clients,” or “partners” in the learning process. University brochures flash montages of college rec centers rather than the pedigrees of their programs. At this point, many are even suggesting that the commercialization of Higher Education has led to students underhandedly ruling the roost. Rate My Professor and similar websites slowly put a stranglehold on select professors, forcing them to dumb down their content since the best ratings usually come from the easiest classes.
What too many key players in this drama seem to be forgetting is that colleges are NOT businesses in the truest sense, or at least they shouldn’t strive for such a classification. Hopefully, our current crop of college students will one day 
offer the country a better economic performance than did their spendthrift Baby Boomer parents, but this also means today’s students need an education, not a nearly meaningless transcript featuring inflated grades from the McAdemy. Colleges shouldn’t bear the entire brunt of the blame, here. Students and colleges feed off of each other’s weaknesses. As colleges increasingly and embarrassingly cater to students’ recreational indulgences, students become lazier, and the vicious cycle continues. I don’t think Plato envisioned this when he created the Academy. Perhaps more than ever before in American history, we encounter a twisted version of learning that continues to drift away from the World of Ideal Forms.
Statistics regarding college GPA and the amount of time students put into their studying reveals how colleges and students have loosened their standards. Stuart Rojstaczer’s research has shown that since 1935, college GPA has increased by .1 to .2 per decade. Grade inflation proposes the idea that grades have a tendency to increase artificially and not because of smarter students, better education, better availability of information, or any other mechanism aiding student GPA. Concerning this rising GPA, many studies 
have shown that increasing SAT scores only explain between fourteen and twenty percent of the variance. The 2010 College Board found that, on average, a 100 point increase in average SAT scores supported a .1 increase in GPA. Comparatively, as Rojstaczer points out, “At both Texas and Duke, GPA increases of about 0.25 coincided with mean SAT increases (Math and Verbal combined) in the student population of about 50 points.” Such statistics suggest that an increase in student quality and the availability of information does not account for the total increases in student’s grades, supporting the concept of grade inflation. As one might suspect, grade inflation corresponds to reduced study time. The University of California at Santa Barbara conducted a study discovering that “average study time for full-time students has dropped by fifty percent between 1961 and 2003, from 24.4 to 14.5 hours per week.” Therefore, higher enrollment in college does not entirely support a more sophisticated student populace. Rather, it supports the conclusion that students are indulging in a more leisurely college experience with the consent of administrators and educators alike.
Luckily for colleges, enrollment rates seem to increase perpetually for two reasons: the job market demands it, and the all too familiar student loan plays an ongoing role in keeping the system running. The Bureau of Labor Statistics states that someone with a bachelor’s degree earns at least $15,000 more per year than someone without one. Edward Gordon’s research underscores this reality. In 2009, 62% of jobs required at least a two-year degree or higher or a variation of a special apprenticeship program. This number could reach 75% by 2020. Enrollment rates have a positive correlation to this trend. The National Center for Education Statistices notes that between 2000 and 2010, enrollment rates in four-year institutions alone have increased by 37%, due largely to the outsourcing of low paying jobs. Reasonably bright and ambitious Americans have no choice besides going to school. Of course, the decision comes easily when the college finance officer says, “You won’t have to pay a cent till you graduate.”
Education should not be held hostage by those who privilege materialistic and anti-intellectual outcomes in and of themselves. Of course, using a degree to earn a better living matters, but the fulfillment of a true education has no price tag. An illiterate and uneducated populace spells doom for any given culture, and this means avoiding such a prospect by cultivating a progressive, visionary, and highly capable intelligentsia. Without thinkers like Thales of Miletus, Archimedes, Leonardo da Vinci, Sir Francis Bacon, Sir Isaac Newton, Voltaire, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein, who thoroughly committed themselves to the acquisition of knowledge, we would probably not have our iPhones or possibly even our country, where we are free to pursue the American Dream.
To many, the pursuit of the American Dream should consist of working hard and obtaining a well-rounded, challenging education. Enforcing this requirement in Higher Education will create a generation of Americans who unsubscribe from ignorance and subscribe to the powers of free thought tied closely to sound reasoning skills. As it stands, the American Dream basically states that if you work hard enough, you can accomplish anything. This interesting claim emphasizes the necessity to work, but not necessarily the necessity to learn. College students demonstrate this 
mentality as much as anyone. They commonly think to themselves, “Let me cram as hard as I can for this test so I can pass it, forget the information, and then prepare for the next.” Yes, the fact that more people attend college implies the prospect of a sophisticated cultural consciousness, but the job market demanding degrees plays a significant role. Those degree demands should correspond to maximizing a student’s highest potential. People who generate significant original ideas, who let knowledge engulf them and then capitalize on this knowledge, set themselves and everyone around them up for real success. Businesses shouldn’t be looking for people who characterize themselves as good little worker drones, but rather people who think critically and identify that one angle no one else has pursued but should have.
There are so many issues going on within colleges today. A good portion of the time it is hard to recognize that I am in a school. I am scared to think what will happen to this country when this generation moves into real positions of power.
There are many issues with higher education and why people pursue it but I don’t know if I agree with the idea that employers shouldn’t be looking for it.
I believe education is invaluable and it’s up to the individual whether or not they’re taking anything away from their schooling.
The emphasis on recreation has bothered me recently as well. Growing up, I have always wanted to attend a good school or college for its educational quality, hoping the social quality would focus around the education. Instead, students use their social life to get away from their education or otherwise complain about difficult classes and strict teachers. Students usually treat school as a means to an end. This is not a universal thing, as I have met several students actively involved and interested in the course work (and I typically gravitate to them). I enroll in a semester thinking not of the profitable degree at the end but of the value I will receive in each class.
My girlfriend calls me (half jokingly) a genius, mostly because I understand math and English and astronomy better than most people she knows, but that’s just because I don’t treat the subjects as work. At times it feels like work, but I will spend hours at a time doing my homework without thinking about other things I would “rather” do. I don’t set a time limit on my work, because I make the work the thing I want to do. I am interested in what I learn. I don’t want to escape it. I embrace it.
I don’t mean to set myself up as the model student. I have too many distractions myself; namely Netflix and a few video games. But I try. Many students try. But the majority of the student population does not seem to understand the real value of education, and if they do, they don’t understand how to take advantage of that value. This will lead all the way back to their upbringing, their early education, their direct influences that either encouraged or discouraged logical thought and a progressive assimilation of new ideas. If we were to catch these problems early and grow a generation of intelligent free thinkers, colleges may no longer have a problem with this “business model” and instead thrive solely on a population’s unquenchable thirst for knowledge.
Great article. It got me thinking.
Damn. You said it. I envy you for being able to do your “work” without viewing it as such. As smart as you are, you also seem to have an excellent work ethic and overall worldview. I share many of the sentiments you’ve expressed, but you’re a lot further along with them than I am. Thanks for posting this.
I think Academia has changed quite a bit at the administrative and faculty levels. There’s really no question that the industry is and has been transforming into more of a business model. In his farewell address, Eisenhower mentioned how the defense industry was taking over large university research projects. Remember how he actually warned everyone that this was a very bad idea? And realistically, money usually wins out. In those days, the defense industry successfully leveraged the Cold War to its advantage. So, I agree, Dex. That mindset is always there and always acquisitive, and it’s on campus now in the form of state, federal, and corporate organizations vying for more money and control in the Academy. A stronger voice should be advocating for challenging curriculums that protect freedom of thought and expression.
I don’t think students have changed much, though, at least in two essential ways. Chris, you’ll always be in a minority of people loosely called “intellectuals.” You actually find your classes interesting, and you like to learn and increase your knowledge on an ongoing basis, so much so that you set away time just for the opportunity to think and research. It’s also true that in the end, most students just want to get a decent job, be married with kids, secure adequate health insurance, golf or snowboard, and so on. The majority of people simply wanting to get by as comfortably as possible without too much intellectual, emotional, and physical rigor involved has been the norm for at least as long as people have been writing.
Regardless, the Echo Boomers will have to exceed everyone’s expectations, including their own, whether they like it or not. Pretty soon, overpopulation and water issues will be much bigger problems than most people realize, and things could get ugly with China concerning oil rights in the next 20 years (or sooner) if America doesn’t start integrating alternative energy forms into the culture in a more vigorous manner. Our future leaders will need to dig us out of a cavernous financial hole, too. America is already, what, almost $17 trillion in debt? I lost count a while ago. Along these same lines, the population of some American cities will exceed 20 million before too long, so we’ll need to be addressing sustainability issues in a more serious manner by looking at other successful international models and fashioning better ones on our own, and what about our eroding infrastructure and overworked electrical grid system? The Echo Boomers and their kids better bring their A Game. The Baby Boomers have very nearly mortgaged everyone’s future.
Rod,
I don’t mean to attack students who go to college to secure happiness, comfort, and success. Many of them treat their work seriously and live great lives. I am friends (and family) with many who have never taken a single college course. They are great people.
I just can’t help feeling like something is wrong. Last semester I saw an entire class get kicked out early because only a few people did the required assignment. The excuses ranged from “I forgot” to “I didn’t write it down.” Responsibility is lacking; focus is gone.
We live in a society where an employee–grumbling about having to work directly with other people (god forbid)–will take a week off from work to sit home and play the new Xbox game, rather than take a trip, meet new people, practice a hobby, or generally improve their lot in life (or the lives of others). People go to college because statistics say it will earn them more money, which will in turn buy them more Red Bull and enough vacation time for more Call of Duty marathons. They go to class grudgingly and complain when the work requires more than a few hours of study time per week. They go into extreme debt for a piece of paper that may or may not automatically earn them better-paying jobs.
What is the point if you aren’t actively asking yourself how this assimilation of knowledge can benefit you in every aspect of your life? I don’t take philosophy and logic so I can debate Star Trek; I apply it to my beliefs and daily decisions. I don’t practice writing so I can pass this semester’s class; I practice for five, ten, twenty-five years from now when I am trying to publish a 400-page book on a serious social issue. Then again, how is this different from a computer repair student hoping to work for Microsoft in five or ten years?
Maybe my obvious superiority complex makes me short-sighted. Not everyone needs to think this way. I just feel like not enough people think this way.
Chris said, “I just can’t help feeling like something is wrong.”
Bob Dylan said, “There’s something funny going on . . . I can just feel it in the air.”
Exceptin’ it ain’t so funny, I guess.
Great, great work. I knew this was going to be good when I first read it, and it turned out great. McAdemy? Hilarious.
I like the idea that we would come to value knowledge and education for its own sake, but tell me: how do we get there as a society? I myself am definitely more a part of the problem than the solution, and I love learning. It seems like there’s a more fundamental issue, culturally speaking, related to entitlement and work ethic. I’m starting to sound like Bill O’Reilly here, but I see it in myself and I’m sure it’s commonplace. How do we go from valuing knowledge to valuing the effort necessary to obtain knowledge? Moreover, how do we allow people to fail (which would be the natural consequence of eliminating grade inflation) without damning them to a life as second-class citizens?
Though it is difficult to quantify the value of education, there is little doubt that it is better to have participated in one than not. That said, it’s just school folks. For most of us, college occupies just a small portion of our lives in proportion to our careers. A decent educator’s goal is to instill critical thinking skills that have application far beyond the tiny confines of what one might pick up in a beginning logic or philosophy class. Those well-educated in the system, also learn the knowledge “the system” itself creates its own, deeply specific and authoritarian, problematic view of the world, resulting a conflict between the authentic “individual” and their own fictional projections. For there are those “educated” who will wish to conform to the system, forcing others with them along the way, contrasted with others who seek to change the system, while also engineering the beliefs and actions of other’s. And then there are most of us. Those who eschew either extreme, either for lack of knowledge or discipline, or for engaging in a greater understanding that the vagaries of everyday life make much of the “logical” simplification that describes human behavior a fictional distinction.
As long as we have “outcomes” we will have “commodification.” Each are dehumanizing extremes in a national game defined by an irrational belief in political economics. Knowing that economic paradigms are social also directs attention to correct “ballpark” so to speak: that “the problem of education” is not in Academia, but rather instantiates itself in a society that demands an education, and still does it not so much economically value it.
Complicating this we have a nation where the majority of people still believe in magic. Again indicating the problem is not in the content of the educational system, but presents in the ignorance found in society-at-large. This is not going away without a fight. Even today we read the political winds favor more ignorance in the form of tax payer funded vouchers for religious schooling.
Want to fix education? It’s both easy and hard. First, one must educate themselves beyond the superstitions that enslave us. Second, we must develop a social intolerance for ignorance, effectively ostracizing those who speak nonsense instead of broadcasting them. Lastly, we need to demand that our political economic system evolve to beyond its 18th century dream-state of individualism and political economics and truly capture our (far more) modern socio-productive capabilities.
Hi Summa,
I’m almost tempted to discuss the function of the professor in higher education, but one of your later assertions more interests me. You say, “we must develop a social intolerance for ignorance, effectively ostracizing those who speak nonsense instead of broadcasting them.” I couldn’t agree more. Being “fair” doesn’t mean giving equal play to supporters of clearly retrograde or counter-productive positions that do more damage than good. In terms of how ferile one chooses to be in assaulting ignorance on a public stage is a related discussion also worth having, but that aside, I’m glad you posted.
Best!
Rod
I loved this article as it really brought to life just how twisted the whole process of secondary education has become. Sadly the problem goes back to the homes of the children and faults in the elementary schooling system. No child left behind is producing a fundamental problem, in order to grow into a well rounded individual a child must not only learn to succeed but also fail. If children grow up thinking that they deserve to be promoted not based on their own efforts, then not only does the whole system fail, but the child’s chances of success are severely diminished.