Introduction
There was a time when higher education meant a brighter future and career advancement. However, when people think about higher education today, they associate it a lot of things. Campuses have taken this chance to reap people off their money. There are so many irrelevant courses offered, and after a student is done with the course, they are not guaranteed to get a job. In his essay, Graff says that whatever is offered in school is something that any young person can get online (62). Some young people find it easy to fetch information from the internet by themselves instead of going to school. Besides, higher education is too expensive, which is not something everyone can afford. The essay discusses various views that young adults have about the present state of higher education.
Discussion
The current state of higher education is a financial burden. This is because there are more requirements needed for one to be able to achieve higher education. Most students feel higher learning is a burden because of tuition fees they have to pay, which is very costly; some have to work to get the money if their parents cannot afford to pay for them (Salmela-Aro and Read 22). Some tuition fees vary with different colleges and universities, as for private institutions, the cost is more than in a public institutions. There are limited financial resources, and students are faced with a high cost of living. They also have extra costs since they have to pay for hostel accommodation and other learning resources required. Most students fear they will have high debt to pay at the end of their course. It means that after they finish learning, they have to get jobs so as to pay back the debt they owe the institution. In her essay, Rose states that there are students who are underprivileged in their financial sources, and they only rely on scholarships and education loans (2). So if they do not get the scholarship or loans, it will affect their learning performance. There also other daily expenses like meals, transport, and others which may be a problem during the course of learning.
Another issue faced is the acceptance of students from other countries. Most learners come from different countries, and a majority of them are rejected during admission. Nearly all the students from other countries rely most on scholarship and since most higher education institution charge very expensive and most of them cannot afford. Moreover, some of the universities increase admission charges required based on the country you come from. In addition, enrollment agreement is another problem in higher education. There is an accord that students are forced to sign upon enrollment requiring them to commit to a certain number of classes and degree programs until they finish their semester. The agreement locks students into a financial bond, and they have to make tuition payments for a specific time frame. Therefore, in case of breaking the agreements, the a student is faced with high charges and fines and still has to pay the tuition anyway, of which none of this is beneficial to them.
The foundational skill gap is also a challenge in higher education as the higher learning institution are focused on job preparation instead of expertise development which is leading to a decline in employee’s foundational skills. According to Graff, skills that are needed in any workplace are not found (63). Such skills include critical analysis, managing time, communication skills, and priorities. It is becoming difficult for employers as they have to find a way to fill the foundational skill gap by either training the employees themselves on foundational career skills or find a suitable educational program elsewhere. Moreover, the decline of humanity is another big problem in higher education. Busteed argues that many educational institutions teach humanity studies based on other people to look like they are more practical in that area of studies (1:46). Such happens because the people in charge of decision-making, for example, administrators, parents, department chairs, and others, do not see humanity’s discipline as providing significant value. These people dismiss major units like History, Philosophy, and English. They see these subjects as if they are impractical in real-world jobs; however, the knowledge is applicable in empirical employment.
Higher education institutions have well-manicured landscapes, elegant monuments, and memorials to revered personages. They also have sports complexes, entertainment fields, student unions, water parks, among others. These structures are directly used to pitch prospective students on enrolling with a restrictive agreement. Unfortunately, none of these things have anything to do with the students braining useful skills and knowledge. However, learners have to pay for them regardless of their helpfulness them. Thus, they are taken as a way of reaping people off their money. The student degrees that are learned by young people today are commoditized in a way that they are unhelpful to the people earning them and the businesses relying on the value they signaled (Graff 62). However, this should not be the case because the goal of a degree program is to assist one to prepare for a job they are seeking in the future.
After the coronavirus pandemic came, there was the realization of the need for reliable and effective learning on higher education. Thus, many students realized that the corresponding course approach to internet-based educational skills was inefficient. Rose argues that students discovered that they do not need a bunch of amenities to learn the foundational skills that are expensive on campuses (3). Thus, many of them prefer finding better and less expensive ways to gain knowledge and skills. Busteed argues that today, even holding a degree with a high grade from a top university does not guarantee one to get a good job (2:53). It does not even give the learner the required skills to acquire a position in a good organization. The new model skill acquisition needed today must be a flexible modular system that will help students to assemble the skills necessary for the careers they want to do for the rest of their lives.
Conclusion
As discussed above, there are so many irrelevant courses offered, and after a student is done with the course, they are not promised to obtain a job. Whatever is offered in school is something that any young person can get online. Some tuition fees vary with different colleges and universities, as for a private institution, the cost is more than in a public institution. The foundational skill gap is also a challenge in higher education as these institutions are focused on job preparation instead of skill development which is leading to a decline in employee’s foundational skills. Higher education institutions have well-manicured landscapes, elegant monuments, and memorials to revered personages. Thus, student degrees that are being learned by young adults today are commoditized in a way that they do not help the people earning them.
Works Cited
Busteed, B. “Importance Of College Drops Nearly 50% Among Young Adults In Just Six Years.” Forbes, 2019, Web.
Graff, G. “Hidden Intellectualism.”Csu Expository Reading and Writing Course Semester One, 2003, pp.61-64. Web.
Rose, M. “Blue-Collar Brilliance.” Web.
Salmela-Aro, Katariina, and Sanna Read. “Study Engagement and Burnout Profiles Among Finnish Higher Education Students.” Burnout Research 7, 2017, pp. 21-28.