Thursday, March 12, 2015

The role of higher education in the 21st Century

As our legislature comes to a close today, I am contemplating my role as an educator as well as an observer of family policy.  Specifically, how does higher education play a role in families and our society?

Higher education used to be only reserved for those who had the means to spend time in thinking about possibilities, theories, governments, and societies.  We learned about culture, history, and all sorts of endeavors that were NOT designed to get us job skills.  Having a bachelor's degree meant that we were problem solvers, big picture thinkers, and had more value than just the skills to do the job.  Government was invested in supporting these kinds of thinkers, so states provided more resources to their institutions of higher education.

Now, government expects that the faculty should be getting money to come into the university through research grants and other business investments.  Less and less state government money is coming to the Universities.  This means that as professors we need to focus more on applied research that can be some reward to the businesses who choose to help support our efforts.  What happens to educating those who are preparing for the future?  Students are taking on HUGE loans hoping that their investment in themselves will pay off in the long run, but they have less and less access to research faculty and research faculty pass their teaching responsibilities on to adjunct faculty or graduate students.

Now that distance education is becoming more and more available to everyone, what does that do to the value of an education?  Some have worried that our students' focus on technology and what technology can do for education leaves graduates without "soft skills."  This means that our graduates may be leaving the university with a Bachelor's degree and the inability to work with others, recognize what it takes to read people, and pick up on their behavioral cues and all other skills that are necessary in business.

I leave these thoughts with more questions than answers.  What is the role of distance education in a University setting?  I teach online classes enrolled with traditional and non-traditional students alike. Why do traditional students take my classes?  Because they don't have to be anywhere for class? They can do class at midnight in their jammies leaving daytime for their jobs. Are students sacrificing school to pay for nice cars, trucks, clothes? Non-traditional students are typically not close to a University setting and are generally older.  They are often supporting a family and parenting children in addition to getting a college degree. Full time parents, full time school, and full time jobs?  What has to be sacrificed with those kinds of demands?

Should universities still consider themselves as a developmental support institution?  Are they still preparing our youth to be leaders in our communities and societies?  Or, are we at the cusp of a major shift in thinking about higher education.  Should we look at community colleges as college prep? Post-high school education? What is the role of vocational education? Are Universities taking on that role of being a vocational institution rather than an institution of higher learning?

It seems to me that we need to make an effort to re-evaluate the role of our higher education system and focus on the goals that the student wants and that our country needs. Do we really need EVERYONE to have a B.S. degree?  Is the University a setting where we prepare for jobs and that's all?  How do we do that?