Simon wrote:
So if having a degree was valuable, why not make everyone have one!
Exactly! Some fields required a degree, so Human Resources decided that they wanted to hire only employees with degrees.
of course as often happens, the goals change - now the target is for everyone to have a degree, any degree, not one that necessarily means something like they did before.
Exactly true! My daughter is in Human Resources and tells me that she is told to shred applicants resumes with no college degrees.
So a whole industry springs up to pump and resumes that show up degrees on people. Some look at the value of the specific degrees themselves and the potential future employment that they may help with, others just say "yay, degree in painting my nails!" or whatever useless crap it is.
Yes! Colleges become factories. Their only business is pumping out degrees. The more degrees you pump out, the more money the college makes. The whole school wins. Raises for all staff.
Lots of debt. Lots of "educators" (ha) getting well paid because of the debt that feeds it, but no real improvement in education - if anything people are dumber and less informed than ever before.
Colleges do teach, but what you get out of it or how competent you will be, does not matter to them. Get them in class and pump them out for new students tomorrow! You're in Debt? Too bad!
Degrees are often no measure of competence depending on the field, they may even become a measure of stupidity - how can they not? You spent how much on that? Sorry, we're not hiring stupid.
Yes! A degree is a just a piece of paper that shows you passed required classes. Colleges don't measure students on how competent they will be in their fields. Unless you came out as a Lawyer, Doctor, Engineer or some specialized field, you will be no more competent in your field as someone else. It just shows that you completed studies!