I don't want to be cynical, but I think the quality of 4-year education has sunk to an all time low in USA. I am now attending SFSU as a business major. In my courses, I see gross generalizations, over simplification, and general lack of objectivity. The overall curriculum in Information Systems, touches some conceptual material, but fails to prepare students with hard skills like system administration.
I learned that the emphasis of an undergraduate degree is suppose to be general concepts. Thus subjects like Economics and History are great for those wishing to pursue a law degree, or other topics like Philosophy and Politics are also good foundation concept courses for a variety of graduate studies.
For those pursuing only an undergraduate degree, trying to acquire skills for employment, the quality of material covered is of questionable quality. An undergraduate degree, for example, in something like Information System, is woefully inadequate for industry, unless combined with material beyond the courses taught at SFSU.
One course that was particularly disturbing is BUS 360 Business Communication. This course has been completely automated on the Aplia system. The topics covered are basic communication skills that were taught in grade school, such as writing a business letter, and remedial English grammar. The information is so general that anyone without experience, including my Chinese roommate, can easily score over 80% taking the online exam. As an active mind wanting to learn, I feel this course is a waste of money, but required to get that eventual degree. I will have to pursue acquiring this knowledge outside of SFSU, such as an extension course, community college, or elsewhere.
I learned that the emphasis of an undergraduate degree is suppose to be general concepts. Thus subjects like Economics and History are great for those wishing to pursue a law degree, or other topics like Philosophy and Politics are also good foundation concept courses for a variety of graduate studies.
For those pursuing only an undergraduate degree, trying to acquire skills for employment, the quality of material covered is of questionable quality. An undergraduate degree, for example, in something like Information System, is woefully inadequate for industry, unless combined with material beyond the courses taught at SFSU.
One course that was particularly disturbing is BUS 360 Business Communication. This course has been completely automated on the Aplia system. The topics covered are basic communication skills that were taught in grade school, such as writing a business letter, and remedial English grammar. The information is so general that anyone without experience, including my Chinese roommate, can easily score over 80% taking the online exam. As an active mind wanting to learn, I feel this course is a waste of money, but required to get that eventual degree. I will have to pursue acquiring this knowledge outside of SFSU, such as an extension course, community college, or elsewhere.Some instructors don't seem particularly bothered about the course or its content. One professor commented about another course being automated by Aplia, where a colleague wanted to have her own final. He jokingly remarked, why have academic integrity there, if you don't have it elsewhere in the course, just go all the way and have the final online and automated.
I think though I am beginning to understand why professors, and more especially the administrators are not concerned. Simply put, the public universities are not here to teach. Yes, you heard me correctly, their goal is not here to teach.
Public institutions are accredited and recognized for their research, not for educating students. In fact, any transparent measurement that would determine how successful universities are at teaching is blocked politically through wealthy lobbying groups in Washington.
The students purpose at the university is to be cropped, so that the universities can shovel more money for themselves, giving administrators raises, and feeding unions with incompetent staff (who aren't measured in their ability to perform their duty) while at the same time, increasing tuition expenses at outrageous staggering amounts. The costs of a university education has even outpaced the rising costs in health care by 63% (1983 to 2007). I found a lot of haunting facts about this in a great article that illustrates the failures of our public American universities is That Old Education Lie by Kevin Carey.
I think though I am beginning to understand why professors, and more especially the administrators are not concerned. Simply put, the public universities are not here to teach. Yes, you heard me correctly, their goal is not here to teach.
Public institutions are accredited and recognized for their research, not for educating students. In fact, any transparent measurement that would determine how successful universities are at teaching is blocked politically through wealthy lobbying groups in Washington.
The students purpose at the university is to be cropped, so that the universities can shovel more money for themselves, giving administrators raises, and feeding unions with incompetent staff (who aren't measured in their ability to perform their duty) while at the same time, increasing tuition expenses at outrageous staggering amounts. The costs of a university education has even outpaced the rising costs in health care by 63% (1983 to 2007). I found a lot of haunting facts about this in a great article that illustrates the failures of our public American universities is That Old Education Lie by Kevin Carey.
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