Abstract
Universities must change.
The culture of college needs to evolve, particularly with regard to "perverse institutional incentives" that reward colleges for enrolling and retaining students rather than for educating them. "It's a problem when higher education is driven by a student client model and institutions are chasing after bodies," he said.
Richard Arum quoted in Inside Higher Ed January 18, 2011by Scott Jaschik ____________________________________________________
The publication of Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa in January, 2011 created a stir as if the ivy on those ivy-covered halls was of the poison variety.
Arum and Roksa ask a simple question, “Are people getting their money’s worth from universities?” Their answer is not pretty.
Students are leaving school with loans that are equal to the cost of median priced homes in many states. But data indicate that many undergraduate students don’t receive the preparation they need for a life and career that would make their investment in a degree worthwhile or profitable. A recent New Yorker cartoon has a physician peering through an otoscope into the ear of a college graduate and the impression is the good doctor can see daylight coming through from the other side.