A Global Kumbaya Moment: “We’ve Got the Whole World at University…Is It Worth It?

Posted on January 11, 2016 by Global Career Compass

To start off the new year, consider this quote from a post which I think will remain a critical topic for debate and policy-action for years to come: “America’s universities are failing to deliver equity. People are prepared to pay through the nose to buy advantage for their children, so top institutions charge ever higher prices and acquire ever more resources, while those [colleges and universities] at the bottom get less.”

Global Career Compass

Leave it to those UK editors at The Economist! The special report in the March 28 issue: http://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21646985-american-model-higher-education-spreading-it-good-producing-excellence is an excellent overview , on a global scale, of the impact of massification of the higher education industry.

While crediting the U.S. and our research university system for launching the globalization of higher ed, they ask the $64,000 question: is it – or has it been – worth the investment of resources? Yes, the “return” on this investment is relatively greater in poorer nations, but, as we know, there is much doubt of late in Europe & North America. I love that they dug up this quote, from an Arthur Miller play, produced in 1946: “Everybody’s gettin so goddam educated in this country they’ll be nobody around to take away the garbage…You stand on the street today and spit, you’re gonna hit a college man [remember , it’s 1946].”

As…

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