DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education

While this is often true, it can create problems when a student does not have the money to pay for a quality education. The cost of college has risen an estimated 250-500% over the last 30 years while consumer price index has only increased by 115 percent during the same time frame (White, 2015; Eskow, 2014). The amount of student loan debt is increasing, along with the cost of college. The income of many young people today cannot keep up with the rising costs of college education and housing. Part of the problem with student loan debt begins when students choose to attend a college that exceeds their financial resources and rely on federal student loans as well as private student loans to make up the difference. Eskow found that even public colleges and universities are becoming difficult to pay for without taking out student loans often averaging $30,000 for tuition, room, and board (2014). Since many people do not have enough money to cover college education expenses, they rely on student loans, both federal and private, to fill the gap. Financial advisor Ramsey stated that often the loans students take out pay “for an off-campus standard of living, and no debt was needed to get the degree” (2013). “The Project on Student Debt reported in 2013 over ⅔ graduating seniors were leaving school with student loans” averaging approximately $28,400 (White, 2015). Taking on almost $30,000 in debt before even starting a career can have a significant impact. It can force people to get a job just to pay off the student loans, not based on what they got an education for prepared for or what they studied. This also can cause a setback in future plans, having to delay many adult milestones due to lack of

Two Years Are Better than Four is an essay by Liz Addison, published in the New York Times Magazine’s College Essay Contest. It follows the fictional, yet symbolic, character, Rick Perlstein. Through the character, Addison expresses her thoughts on the American Higher Education system. Consequently, she highlights the importance of community colleges in the provision of higher education. Addison discounts the 4-year courses provided by mainstream universities. Throughout her essay, Liz Addison claims that Community Colleges are better institutions of higher learning as compared to Universities. This paper tries to outline them as it provides reasoning, evidence and assumptions presumed, in coming up with the aforementioned arguments.

Published in Harper's Magazine’s September 1997 issue, Mark Edmundson’s essay, “On the Uses of Liberal Education: As Lite Entertainment for Bored College Students,” presents a very personal argument for an apparent crisis in liberal education–the lack of passion in students. According to Edmundson, a professor at the University of Virginia, “liberal-arts education is as ineffective as it is now…[because] university culture, like American culture writ large, is, to put it crudely, ever more devoted to consumption and entertainment, to the using and using up of goods and images” (723). He believes that consumer culture is responsible for students’ dispassionate attitude towards his class because they view liberal education as a paid service or product that should cater to their wishes. Further, he writes that universities feed into consumer culture, maintaining a “relationship with students [that] has a solicitous, nearly servile tone” (725). In this way, Edmundson lays out the reasons for why he thinks liberal education is failing.

An article by HO, J.D says, “the National Center for education statistics reports an average tuition of 25,409 for the 2014-15 academic year at four-year colleges and universities.” It’s amazing how costly is to get an education. Where many questions, Should the amount of wealth you make determine whether you attend college or not.? Many students going college are in college debt College expenses are getting higher, every individual that is thinking of going college goes through the financial struggle. As many think of a question of how much income they need to pay college tuition.? In regrade to making their college life, usually, student tend to go school and work. although, going school and working becomes the habit but the student will have a dangerous effect on their study. They would have less time to study and take a rest. Education has given many an opportunity to change the world and taught people to saves other people lives. Now our world has doctors, pilots, engineers, scientist and much more that people are not seeing. The life cycle of humans is amazing where we lose another and get even smarter and betters. In this cycle, many have not have gotten an opportunity to show the talent because of college tuitions rising every year. There have been different college grants and some help on college fee if you are under poverty level. Education should not be compared with the price, we can buy a nice dress with a good price but we cannot buy an education at a price

Along with the average tuition increasing, so has the average income of Americans. In order to afford college tuition, student loans, financial aid, and scholarships come in handy for the time being. Unfortunately, American’s who have finished college still have a load of debt to pay off for many years after graduating. Americans are spending money they don 't have to finance educations they are not sure are worth it. In some cases, students who find jobs right out of high school are left without college debt, but also without a degree. On the other hand, many people who attend college have large college debts yet have a decent

Unfortunately, notwithstanding poet Louisa Fletcher's desire to start over, colleges and universities in the United States will not at any time soon access the Land of Beginning Again. Those institutions must enact meaningful change transitions from where they exist today, and there is much change that is needed. To wit, innovator and strategic management consultant Fred Buining asserts that higher education is in the "eye of the hurricane," which means that leaders, scholars, and educators are not doing enough to meet the challenges they face. Buining suggests that there is "no critical mass" in terms of the changes that are needed in higher education. Moreover, he believes that while today's student in colleges and universities are getting younger the professors and instructors are getting older, issues like cultural diversity and commercialization threaten institutions of higher learning. This paper reviews and critiques scholarly sources that address issues of diversity and commercialization on college and university campuses. Thesis: colleges and universities are in many respects becoming very much like corporations, and this is truly the wrong direction for higher education

Student debt is one of the top causes of crippling debt. If you want to get a college education in today's world, you will need to either be very wealthy or suffer the consequences of student loans. College costs had risen five hundred percent since 1985, imagine how much more that has risen until 2016. A tuition at a private college was projected to cost $130,000 on average for over four years. As state cutbacks in the wake of the financial crisis, caused the cost the price of public higher education to raise by 15 percent in a two year

Paying for a Higher education in the United States is still yet to be affordable for the common student, regardless of all financial help, it's still a burden. Due to student loans and other financial helps, student debt has become a crisis, that many Americans continue to struggle with throughout years without absence. The current economy is leaving no choice than raising tuitions. "But from now on, unless inflation is halted, there's no choice in the matter but to continue raising tuition", according to the Los Angeles Times. Student debt enlarges with the current inflation.

Harvard University is America's oldest higher education institution, modeled after England's Oxford University. It originally graduated about 70% of the nation’s clergymen, which has decreased to only 10% since the 19th century. Between 1636 and 1783, America charted nine colleges with only one in the south (Kaufman). Most colleges of that time only enrolled about 100 students, and even fewer than that actually graduated with degrees (Thelin, Edwards, & Moyen). With the Supreme Courts passing on the Dartmouth decision in 1819, which protected the colleges from government intervention. With the colleges only being funded by student tuition and donors most shut down during this time (Thelin, Edwards, & Moyen). Starting around the 1920’s, more colleges were offering different degrees and more diverse classes for their students. This lead to a more competitive job market, with more people attending and graduating from college with a degree. During this time period, most jobs did not require a college degree that most do nowadays.

​"Education is the movement from darkness to light". In The Closing Of The American Mind, by Allan Bloom, Bloom argues that higher education has been drastically modified over the years and has ruined the psyche of today 's students. Once upon a time Americans dreamed of a better and brighter future, one that could transport them into a perfect utopia of societal bliss. Higher Education was the enthralling stepping stone for happiness. It inspired students to find their voice, while drawing from the past. It was a place where they could make mistakes and change their major once or twice. Today, higher education has become more about the career path and how it is more necessary than before. Higher education is no longer an adventure that allows the student to embark upon a journey of discovery and self-expression as it once was. This is due to the vigorous demands of the general society and how students today are required to maintain focus on a career that is valuable and not adventurous. Basically, we have lost touch with what makes this country so great; the impossible becoming reality. The creativity is gone. The belief that our imagination can grant us happiness if we work hard enough and believe is nonexistent. Higher education has separated the extraordinary and left us with dedicated, intelligent drones working towards the path that pays the most and will always have job security.

However, the first college was founded in 1636.In 1636 the average American student was of Caucasian descent, male, and came from a wealthy family and would attend Harvard, it was, of course, the first college in the colonies, to become a clergyman. In 1693 not much has changed for the American Student except a second college or Anglican institution founded by William & Mary and required students to be members of the Church of England and would help the American student go on to become a minister. By 1776 there were nine colleges in the states Although since slavery would not be abolished until January 31st, 1865, and a war was still being fought with Mexico over land, and women still did not have the right to vote. The image of the American student was still very like the one 140 years ago. Enrollment up to this point was still quite small (rarely ever exceeding 100 students per graduating class), but those who did attend college became a community and political leaders. Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and George Washington are just a few of our college-educated forefathers. In 1825 is when the college student could deviate from becoming either a clergyman or minister. The University of Virginia, founded by Thomas Jefferson, created a lasting impact on education in America. He wanted to move away from the religious ties to the college, and wanted it to be paid for by the general public so that

Now, the educator’s perspective will be reviewed. The world of university and school collaboration seems to be gradually entering a new phase, with both new opportunities and some unfamiliar challenges. A major stimulus for change stems from the rapid and sustained rise of the standards movement in American education. There was broad agreement that the priority for school improvement was deciding what should be taught and the levels of

Even from before the first university, the University of Al-Karaouine, was founded in 859 B.C.E. in Morocco, people of the world have always been hungry for knowledge and enlightenment. We have sought out new truths of the universe and have edited previous beliefs as our base of knowledge expanded. Humans are a curious breed, always looking for what is behind the next corner, always reaching for what seems too far away. We have always been curious, but it was not until that first university was founded did we find the seemingly perfect way to reach higher education. Nothing is perfect though, as Frank Bruni and Mark Edmundson pointed out in their essays describing the flawed education system of today, a system that

In outlining the historical development of American colleges and universities, Greiger (2011) illustrated the fact that the tensions present today in higher education between the purpose and function of post-secondary education have been ever present since the inception of American colleges. I found it interesting that many of the initial colleges failed, restructured themselves (undergraduates vs graduates), or made the decision to forgo government support (Harvard and Yale) in order to hold fast to the ideals thought to be most sacred surrounding the purpose of higher education (prestige, exposure to “the classics”, and exclusivity) and in rebellion to the idea that higher education ought to serve as a function of society. I also found it

In addition to the social aspects, college teaches how to develop independent thinking. It also “exposes future citizens to material that enlightens and empowers them, whatever careers they end up choosing” (Menand, 3). However, most students today perceive college fundamentally as a party scene and various forms of entertainment instead of focusing on school work. They have forgotten about the academic freedom provided by receiving a proper college education.