This week's Economist article on the problems with higher education has some shocking data.
The cost of a university education has risen by 5x the rate of inflation since 1983. The cost of a university education in 2010 requires 38% of median income up from 23% in the year 2001. And the standards for such degrees have been reduced to the point where I am not sure how to gauge what academic results really mean. 43% of all grades at 4 year universities are "A's". GPA's in 2006 averaged 3.11 up from 2.52 in the 1950's. AND a third of students to not take any courses requiring more than 40 pages of reading over an entire term.
This is appalling and I welcome reader input as to what can be done to change this. I don't think the Federal Government has any role in any of this and I don't think that for-profit education is an answer for this either.
Maybe, business should insist on 2 year degrees and hire those people before they hire 4 year people for whom they have no idea what standards they have been educated to. I hate to say that because I know I benefited from a liberal arts education, but then I had to read 40 pages a WEEK in almost every course.
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