This is somewhat definitely related to my previous post:
This is an excellent, honest presentation of very disturbing data related to the value of our degrees at American Colleges and Universities.
The following quote has struck me at the moment:
"Students are paying more for a product every year, and increasingly they want and get the reward of a good grade for their purchase."
I see. So, students are increasingly expecting that if they pay exorbitant tuition rates (mostly at private institutions), then they should receive better grades. But, it's not just private institutions. They just seem to be showing slightly more egregious trends with inflated grades. (See the individual school data for Yale, Harvard, Duke, etc.) It seems that they are neglecting the most important variable in the middle -- what was learned by the student that resulted in the grade earned? Or, is that "earned" concept becoming more lost?
I find it extremely alarming that we have the very best private schools admitting that students today are graduating with an overall GPA that is nearly a full point higher than their predecessors graduating 45 years ago. Some of the better schools are admitting that overall average GPAs are now almost an astounding 3.5. (I can't believe how smart our students have become!) Those averages were around 3.0 when I graduated. Where do they expect to go from here? Do we need to bump the upper end to 5.0? NO! Are students actually that much smarter today than they were back then? Hardly! Is this an artifact of the increased pressure behind the "no child left behind" mentality carried into hiigher ed? Is this partly because colleges are continuing to become more business-minded and less academic-focused? Such mandates lead adminstrations to issue mandates to do whatever it takes to keep those students enrolled. (We need that money, right?) Did anyone consider that perhaps it is not every high school graduate's path in life to go to college? How do we provide opportunities for the true future scholars and researchers to shine and stand out if more and more students are able to achieve a 4.0 GPA?
If students were so much smarter now, then at least in computer science, American universities would be placing substantially better in ACM international programming competitions. (I'm sure I can come up with more metrics of computer science program performance in higher ed.)
Read my previous post from earlier for more of my venting on this. We need to work hard and fast to put value back into our degrees. Only then will we continue to build our credentials back into our programs and increase worldwide interest in our institutions. Industry recruiters will respect our programs again, knowing that students with degrees are indeed worthy of hire. Then, you will see enrollments increase because colleges will once again become the place they used to be.
I find it extremely alarming that we have the very best private schools admitting that students today are graduating with an overall GPA that is nearly a full point higher than their predecessors graduating 45 years ago. Some of the better schools are admitting that overall average GPAs are now almost an astounding 3.5. (I can't believe how smart our students have become!) Those averages were around 3.0 when I graduated. Where do they expect to go from here? Do we need to bump the upper end to 5.0? NO! Are students actually that much smarter today than they were back then? Hardly! Is this an artifact of the increased pressure behind the "no child left behind" mentality carried into hiigher ed? Is this partly because colleges are continuing to become more business-minded and less academic-focused? Such mandates lead adminstrations to issue mandates to do whatever it takes to keep those students enrolled. (We need that money, right?) Did anyone consider that perhaps it is not every high school graduate's path in life to go to college? How do we provide opportunities for the true future scholars and researchers to shine and stand out if more and more students are able to achieve a 4.0 GPA?
If students were so much smarter now, then at least in computer science, American universities would be placing substantially better in ACM international programming competitions. (I'm sure I can come up with more metrics of computer science program performance in higher ed.)
Read my previous post from earlier for more of my venting on this. We need to work hard and fast to put value back into our degrees. Only then will we continue to build our credentials back into our programs and increase worldwide interest in our institutions. Industry recruiters will respect our programs again, knowing that students with degrees are indeed worthy of hire. Then, you will see enrollments increase because colleges will once again become the place they used to be.
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