- Is the Current Higher Education Model Efficient?
- Posted By:
- Karen W.
- Posted On:
- 20-Dec-2012
-
The Higher Education system in our country is going through a tough time. Colleges and Universities across the nation have come under the scanner. The growing tuition fee is a major issue that needs to be tackled. In such a situation, one question that seems to be troubling a lot of educational experts and administrators is whether the higher education system in the country is efficient enough?
America has dominated the world as far as quality of education is concerned. So what has made the system literally come to its knees in the last decade or so? The cost of running a college has increased tremendously over the last few years. This is mainly because higher educational institutes have all of a sudden glamorized themselves.
There was a time when colleges and universities focused more on the quality of education. Most of the funds were spent on hiring good quality and highly skilled teachers and faculty members. However, the past few years has seen a new and rather bizarre trend hitting colleges. They are more interested in building lavish gymnasiums and stadiums and playgrounds. This is one of the main reasons for the rise in tuition cost.
In order to make sure that the extra cost is taken care of, these colleges have no other option but to raise the tuition fee. One cannot really blame the colleges entirely. Even though glamorization has taken place, it is also true that the average funds coming in from state and federal bodies have gone down drastically, leaving these institutes in a helpless state. Unfortunately for our country, all these problems seem to have cropped up at the same time, making it even more difficult to think of solutions.
According to a number of educational experts, America at the moment must look into the entire higher education model all over again. Infact, there are a number of experts who are even saying that the model should be recreated all together. However, the next question that pops up is can the model be recreated? It is even a realistic solution? This is like saying that Apple is not doing well so shut it and restart is all over again.
Even though, there are a number of solutions available; one must not forget to look into the execution aspect. A solution is of no use whatsoever if it cannot be executed. There is absolutely no doubt that colleges have to come up with strategies that will reduce the tuition cost. This is inevitable whether or not enough funding is available.
One of the ways of doing it is to only cater to a few numbers of courses for a temporary period. This way, the cost of running the college will come down. Yes, it will also mean lesser number of students coming in every year. However, this issue can be sorted by increasing the number of seats for limited courses.
The current higher education model might not be efficient but certainly has the potential to do well if the right steps are taken immediately.