Too little is known about whether money spent on higher education is worth it
1–10 of 83 posts
Re: Too little is known about whether money spent on higher education is worth it
#2Not worth the read with a clickbait title and only one mention of online courses.
> Online courses, which have so far failed to realise their promise of revolutionising higher education, would begin to make a bigger impact. The government would have a better idea of whether society should be investing more or less in higher education.
Re: Too little is known about whether money spent on higher education is worth it
#3Not worth the read with a clickbait title and only one mention of online courses. > Online courses, which have so far failed to realise their promise of revolutionising higher education, would begin to make a bigger impact. The government would have a better idea of whether society should be investing more or less in higher education.
We replaced the title with the subtitle (a compressed version of it).
Re: Too little is known about whether money spent on higher education is worth it
#4Really? The author is advocating extending universal testing to higher education? Because that's working so well in secondary schools... /s
Common core is a failure. The idea of extending that model to cover an even broader, more diverse set of subjects and topics is really poorly thought out. Who's going to design these tests? What professor is going to give a shit about them when their evaulations are based solely on research performance, not teaching? What top school with world-class faculty would ever agree to hamstring itself with a generic curriculum rather than let its experts teach what they know best?
What a terrible idea.
Re: Too little is known about whether money spent on higher education is worth it
#5Growing up in the late 20th century, I cannot imagine not having gone to university. Without it, I'd still live in a small village and probably doing some menial work in a factory or on a farm. I would not have had the experience of focussing on a subject for five years straight. I would not have had the experience of being able to reflect on society and my role in it. I would not have had the experience of discovering ideas far beyond my imagination during my teenage years.
Was it worth it? To me, certainly. To society at large? The society being a post-industrial society morphing into an information society, having yet another worker for factories or farms that do not need it, does not seem to be a good contribution. I went to university, and because of that I contributed in ways I would never have been able otherwise: I've taught in high school; I've done historical research at a university; and I've done research on how to better prepare our children for participation in the information society. But was it worth it?
To be honest—without being a reductionist—, my contributions to society are slim. Maybe I've effected one or two students in a way that will set them on a path true contribution to society. Maybe I've effected others to take a wrong turn. I don't know. And my research? In the end its target audience was a small research community and, although I've been cited enough, its impact is just a drop, if that at all.
But that is just me. I imagine that your stories and those of other who went to university are similar in a way. Our contributions might be tiny, but what about taking together all of our tiny contributions?
Re: Too little is known about whether money spent on higher education is worth it
#6It's worth it to get an education but you have to MAKE IT worth it
Re: Too little is known about whether money spent on higher education is worth it
#7Perhaps your assumptions are wrong? Not everything should be measured against a monetary value standard.
Re: Too little is known about whether money spent on higher education is worth it
#8My honest belief is that learning is always worth the cost. If you're only going for a certificate/degree then it may bring little value. Being able to learn and fully grasp the subject matter and socializing with like-minded folks will always be worth the cost. How much a person is willing to spend greatly depends on the person's financial situation. Going into $200k+ debt may or may not be worth it for everyone.
I've spent hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars for a course that I thought was very beneficial to me, and I'll gladly do it again as I find useful things to learn.
Re: Too little is known about whether money spent on higher education is worth it
#9It's worth it to get an education but you have to MAKE IT worth it
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Re: Too little is known about whether money spent on higher education is worth it
#10The basis for the argument seems to be that, we do not do as well on international test but produce more cited research. Maybe the problem is that the international tests measure the wrong things from the wrong people? I can't see why teaching towards tests is necessary just given the arguments in this article, and my gut reaction having been processed through public schools full of standardized tests is utter revulsion at the thought that higher education math could be molded to fit the topics that some central authority chose.