Higher Education

We Don’t Need No Education (with apologies to Pink Floyd)

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Enrollment declines continued to worsen this spring. Total post-secondary enrollment fell to 16.2 million this spring, marking a one-year decline of 4.1 percent or 685,000 students. Enrollment declined this spring at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Following a 3.5 percent drop last spring, post-secondary institutions have lost nearly 1.3 million students since spring 2020. Undergraduate enrollment accounted for most of the decline, dropping 4.7 percent this spring or over 662,000 students from spring 2021. As a result, the undergraduate student body is now 9.4 percent or nearly 1.4 million students smaller than before the pandemic.

National Student Clearinghouse Research Center — https://nscresearchcenter.org/current-term-enrollment-estimates/

I wonder why so many kids are not going to college.

A Moral Cesspool

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From zero in 1993 to $1.728 trillion in 2021: this is the predatory financialization of higher education which has enriched lenders, Wall Street and the Higher Education Cartel

America Is a Moral Cesspool, and Student Loans Prove It — https://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2021/07/america-is-moral-cesspool-and-student.html

Way back in the Dark Ages I borrowed a total of $8000.00 and worked summers and during the school years to pay for my college education. It took me ten years of payments at $69.72 a month to pay the loan off. I promised myself no matter the hardship my own children would not borrow money for their undergraduate degrees (medical school different story). There were reasons why I drove a 2006 Ford Taurus for 15 effing years.

One of the joys of aging is you get to a point where you say what you want to say and the hell with everyone else. Charles Hugh Smith is one of us who possess critical thinking skills and will always tell it like it is. Check out his blog.

And this is a perfect time to remind all of my readers that the opinions expressed in this and my other blog are mine alone and do not represent the views of any corporate entity that I may or may not be involved with either in the present or past.

I should play more and work less. https://garyskitchen.net/2021/07/24/stress-reduction/ I’m starting to become more cynical than usual.

More on Colleges and Covid

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U.S. counties with large colleges or universities with remote instruction (n = 22) experienced a 17.9% decrease in incidence and university counties with in-person instruction (n = 79) experienced a 56% increase in incidence, comparing the 21-day periods before and after classes started. Counties without large colleges or universities (n = 3,009) experienced a 6% decrease in incidence during similar time frames.


Leidner AJ, Barry V, Bowen VB, et al. Opening of Large Institutions of Higher Education and County-Level COVID-19 Incidence — United States, July 6–September 17, 2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2021;70:14–19. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7001a4external icon

That’s it. That’s the post.

“I slept on the floor, and woke up to ants crawling on my bed.”

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Gaughan reported the room had dirt on the bed and on the ground, as well as an unclean sink and curtains. When she asked the hall coordinators why the room was in that condition, they said they had not anticipated anyone contracting COVID-19 within the first move-in day, so the rooms were not prepared, and spoke to her with indifference, she said.

Gaughan said she felt uncomfortable when she said she reported she was told she could not tell her parents that she tested positive for COVID-19, as it would cause “unnecessary chaos”. She added that the resident assistant informed her that he was told that none of the individuals herself and her roommate had come into contact with would be quarantined or notified of her testing positive.

‘I felt like a guinea pig’: student’s ‘awful’ quarantine experience prompts UI apology — https://dailyiowan.com/2020/08/20/i-felt-like-a-guinea-pig-students-awful-quarantine-experience-prompts-university-of-iowa-apology/

Colleges and universities are seemingly ill-prepared to deal with Covid-19 outbreaks on campuses. One commentator on this story wrote “they don’t care about students only their institutional survival” which is an opinion I share. Schools had months to prepare for reopening for the fall semester. From the stories I’ve read most institutions get an F in Infectious Diseases 101. Read this entire story yourself. Here are the points I gleaned from this story:

Poor planning from bad assumptions.

Bad assumptions led to poor judgment.

Poor judgment resulted in poor decisions.

Zero contact tracing (don’t tell your parents and we won’t tell anyone you’ve been in contact with).

Apologize because an apology for your ineptitude solves everything.

Apologize (but keep their money). College Clusterfuck 2.0 – “It’s a Dystopian Hell” – Updated.

Oh…I almost forgot. Blame the kids and take no responsibility.

In an email from Assistant Dean and Director of Student Accountability Angela Ibrahim-Olin, the University of Iowa reiterated that students can held accountable for off-campus behavior.

Off-campus behavior may lead to suspensions or cancellations of housing contracts — https://dailyiowan.com/2020/08/25/off-campus-behavior-may-lead-to-suspensions-or-cancellations-of-housing-contracts/

Education, not income, the best predictor of a long life

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The researchers point out that better education leads to improved cognition and in turn to better choices for health-related behaviours. Recent decades have seen a shift in the disease burden from infectious to chronic diseases, the latter of which are largely lifestyle-related. As time goes on, the link between education and better health choices, and therefore life expectancy, will become even more apparent.

Read the source article here.

Download the original study at this link.

I should have gone to graduate school.

What Ivy League Schools Really Want – Quartz

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Source: The Ivy league want students who’ve had meaningful experiences, not just achievements – Quartz

“Our youth’s values appear to be awry, and the messages that adults are sending may be at the heart of the problem.”

Interesting read.

So is the following article.

Source: The educational strategy that’s turning students into unimaginative robots – Quartz

Now add this to a generation who cannot detach themselves from a tiny computer screen.  What do you get?

An absence of critical thinking skills and creativity.

Robots.

Should we choose to devalue Humanities we become less human.

Think about it.

How Coursera, A Free Online Education Service, Will School Us All | Fast Company | Business + Innovation

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Coursera courses are 6 to 10 weeks long, with an hour or two of videos per week. In addition to the snap quizzes, they feature weekly exercises, ranging from problem sets to spreadsheets to design projects or essays, and sometimes a final project or exam. For all quantitative courses, the platform uses artificial intelligence to evaluate each longer exercise, with instant results. Students can keep trying until they get the right answer. For humanities courses, Coursera is testing a form of peer grading.

via How Coursera, A Free Online Education Service, Will School Us All | Fast Company | Business + Innovation.

Great article about a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course).  HT – Mish.