The alert consumer discovers that she is not getting the same number of chips or ounces of edible stuff in the packages she routinely buys at the supermarket. The cost of the box is the same as before. The quantity is not. The company does not announce that it has raised prices.
Colleges do the same thing:
*the three hour course is now two and one half hours
*the obligatory fee formerly included in tuition is now a separate cost item on the bill without any reduction in the tuition
*advice on resume writing and interview techniques, formerly provided by the student’s advisor, now becomes a paid course
Okay, since I am complaining about higher education, let me toss in a few non-financial items:
*if a college is promoting the opportunity for a semester abroad, could it please inform students on how to juggle their prerequisite and major schedules so that the semester abroad does not screw everything up.
*when a student signs up for an in-class course, he expects physical presence, not on-line in his room. Of course, if the in-class presentation by the professor is exclusively power point, coupled with a request to not take notes, the student might as well be in his room.
*Do professors care whether tests are consistent with their self-written syllabi? Consistency in grading admittedly is a pipe dream. Years ago, when my daughter brought home a test on which she had received a 105, my reaction was “no way, 100 is the top mark.” Extra credits are like a virus, right up there with self-esteem t-shirts, ego stroking with scant evidence of substantive impact.
*An education leader of my acquaintance used to ask her professors: are you grading on the student’s life story, how hard they worked, or what they actually accomplished in the class?
The modified contemporary internalized questions of college graduates in many cases seem to be: have you made a lot of friends, do you know how to network, is your resume current, will you contribute to the alumni association? Absent in many cases, but discovered by the professional interviewer, is a level of content knowledge that would make the student a prospective employee.
Graduates should keep in mind that a diploma guarantees nothing. Rather, it is a “ticket” which gets the graduate past the closed door and into the room for a discussion about employment. It is what happens in that conversation that tells the true story of the student’s higher education and preparedness for the real world.