What can we do to make university education special again?

How would you restrict it?

What, the obscene amounts of dosh you have to throw at it are not restrictive enough for you?

@elbanditoroso I would lower the age that you can drop out of school and join the workforce. That way only the students who really like school are in school. Or we could go the other way and make a bachelors degree mandatory or school until 25 years old? @ragingloli What is “Dosh”? Do you mean cash?

It’s a complicated and lofty goal, but I’d begin by making grammar school and high school special again. Before anyone goes to a university, let’s be sure the person’s fully literate in English, can function in a second language, has a grasp of science and math, and can find New York state on a map.

I take college courses for fun, rubbing elbows with recent high school graduates. I’m not being an old fogey when I say that I’m appalled by so much of what I see. It really isn’t fair how unprepared students are for post-secondary education, not to the students themselves or the future that’s waiting for them.

Wait, what do you mean “make it special again”? You mean, make it less common?

A college education is an investment in human capital. A good public education for all is a hallmark of an advancing society.

@zenvelo Most to almost all of my education past grade 6 was useless and I would have loved the opportunity to start work early and to get ahead of the students who are continuing with the post secondary education route. Also I would have benefited if the jerks in high school where gone and in the work force instead of hitting me with spit balls in my science class. Maybe I would be able to drop out and avoid the teasing and been able to work as a cashier. Yes I mean to make it less common. In high school they have the university stream and the practical stream for those not going to university. I just mean to accentuate the differences to junior high. Instead of forcing a square peg onto a round hole.

Many companies are investing in comprehensive intern programs that train the employees to do the work required. I like that idea. It is very similar to the apprenticeship programs the trades use.

I think there are commercial and social pressures in our society which not only hinder academic attainment, but decrease our ability to turn out well rounded college applicants. There’s this nagging evidence that we as Americans are increasingly distinguished by our lack of depth.

There is no way to make a university education special once such an education is required to work the makeup counter at Macys. If 50% of the population is driving Ferraris, it’s tough to sell the car as exceptional.

Bring secondary sector jobs back in the west. The main reason why so many people go to college/university after highschool is that most jobs are tertiary sector (aka service sector) in every western country. Most of which need a university education to ensure a decent lifestyle.

Want people to join the workforce sooner? Bring back apprenticeships, factories and small craftsmen (woodworkers, blacksmiths, that kind of thing) and make sure that the money is good enough for people to live off of.

I am not following what you are saying in your comment. You talk about being able to drop out and become a cashier. I don’t know what that means. Why does dropping out make it easier to become a cashier? If that is what you want, why couldn’t you become a cashier now?

Then you complain about being teased in science class in high school. The remedy you provide is to extend the two track system to junior high school. I don’t get it. You would still have the same people bothering you in high school, since high school has two tracks.

The ideal has to be personalised education. If a teacher recognises aptitude for a particular subject in a student, that should be emphasised.

In the classical world, pupils would find a teacher to learn from, and would study under them in a very small group for many years. That isn’t possible anymore, since all of modern knowledge is so specialised it is hard for anyone to gain a general foundation. But maybe we should allow schools to take on a particular character, rather than trying to standardise everything.

Let’s say every school has to teach a basic level of English, maths, science, history, and logic (something that is sorely lacking in today’s educational system). Once those core subjects are dealt with, the more specialised subjects can take up the remainder of the school hours. One school can delve even deeper into maths, while another focuses on the performing arts, another on craftsmanship, and another on economics. In such a system, students would have a basic working knowledge of the skills they are best suited to, without having to take a degree in that field. An economics graduate could take an entry-level job at an accountant’s firm, and a craftsmanship graduate could take up a trade, straight from school.

Alternatively, we could just ban universities from teaching worthless degrees (of which there are far too many).

Agreed. Let us ban everything that is not hard science. Anything that is not mathematics, physics, biology or astronomy, gone.

@ragingloli Either we’re disagreeing on what counts as worthless, or you’re taking the piss. I’d be mortified if a university were to stop teaching history or philosophy.

@FireMadeFlesh Personalised education sounds good.

@LostInParadise In high school we had honors class and university stream and practical stream , then remedial strem. I would loved to be in the honors stream that way I could get an education. The idiots and jerks would be booted out of all classes that I share.