In an era where the labor industry prefers more educated and skilled individuals, it is not surprising to learn that college education has lost its charm in luring high school graduates to advance their studies. But is college education really irrelevant today?
According to Collin College history professor L.D. Burnett of The Chronicle of Higher Education, college education, particularly the humanistic inquiry (e.g. study of literature, history and others), has been viewed as "purely vocational" and a "waste of time and money." However, the writer also stressed the wisdom earned in education is priceless.
"The value of the humanities as the heart of a university education does not lie primarily in "transferrable skills" nor in the "critical thinking" that employers presumably want," Burnett wrote. "Instead, a core education in the humanities gives students the intellectual space to grapple with questions of enduring importance. The value of knowing how humankind has tackled those questions and taking part in that endeavor can never be measured in dollars and cents alone."
Unfortunately, higher education lacks public support today and students only consider college education as a way to get a job. With the added burden of economic challenges, many parents and students opt not to pursue college education.
So, is college education just a waste of time and money? Despite the expensive cost of college education, it is also considered as a valuable investment that's why, Nasdaq noted a way to avoid unmanageable student loans is by choosing the right college that suits the best interest of a student.
Today, the average loan debt per student is $28,950, as per The Institute for College Access & Success. Fortunately, having a comprehensive planning strategy will help parents allow their child to pursue college education without the need to rely on student loans or break their savings account. That's not to say that student loans don't have a valid purpose in the world. Students just need to be aware of the implications and perhaps even how to refinance student loans rather than missing a payment. For a more thorough explanation, you can check out Nasdaq.
Meanwhile, NLJ revealed that school officials are looking for the best ways to ensure college education success. In fact, WCSD Board of Education trustee Brenda Upton said that steps should be taken in data gathering to determine the factors why some students are leaving college prematurely.
The issue of increasing cases of college dropouts, however, is not only a problem in one specific school district. District superintendent Dr. Summer Stephens says emphasizes that it's a problem "everywhere," igniting concerns over higher education success among many college officials.
With that said, Upton believed that the current approach to prepare students for college education may be changed. In other education-related news, enrolling high school students in advanced classes do not reportedly make college grades better.
As a matter of fact, researchers found that the value of high school might have been exaggerated. The reason? They experts in a new Brookings Institution discovered that the advanced high school courses do not have a connection to college success, The Atlantic reported.
"We found confirmatory evidence that advanced high-school courses apparently do little to prepare students for success in college coursework," former TechCrunch reporter Gregory Ferenstein and nonresident Brookings fellow and W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research economist Brad Hershbein wrote in the research study found in SSRN.
The pair also found that if race, gender, socioeconomic background and standardized-test scores were controlled, the courses that students took in high school only made a minute impact on college grades. Unfortunately, states were still eager to push students to enroll in advanced courses.
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