From Inside Higher Ed, a review of a new book about the failings of contemporary higher education, “Academically Adrift.”
“How much are students actually learning in contemporary higher education? The answer for many undergraduates, we have concluded, is not much,” write Richard Arum (professor of sociology and education at New York University) and Josipa Roksa (assistant professor of sociology at the University of Virginia). For many undergraduates, they write, “drifting through college without a clear sense of purpose is readily apparent.”
I’m going to start posting more about education–especially the goals and effectiveness of higher education–as I’m turning again to a topic about which I’m tremendously interested. We need to ask more: “What are the goals of higher education?”
According to the linked article:
Arum said that [these] problems…should be viewed as a moral challenge to higher education. Students who struggle to pay for college and emerge into a tough job market have a right to know that they have learned something, he said. “You can’t have a democratic society when the elite — the college-educated kids — don’t have these abilities to think critically.”
