Why universities are failing to prepare students for the job market
Research suggests university education not meeting basic expectationsMelissa Gismondi Students returned to university and college campuses across the country last month, and while COVID-19 has raised new challenges, anyone who has spent time on campus in the last decade knows concerns about the state of higher education are nothing new.
In the United States, where some estimates now place student debt at over $1 trillion, college enrolment is declining, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
In Canada, news earlier this year that Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ont., filed for insolvency and creditor protection has caused some experts to worry. In an emergency parliamentary debate about Laurentian, Green Party MP Elizabeth May called it "the canary in our educational coal mine."
The challenges don't stop there.
Tuition in Canada has been rising for domestic and especially international students, whom universities increasingly rely on to pay the bills. Public spending on higher education has been stagnant or decreasing. More and more, universities lean on part-time or adjunct instructors. Students are graduating into a brutal job market. And there are studies suggesting universities aren't always successful in providing graduates with ...
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/why-univ ... -1.6208196=============================================
Who ever said that the purpose of university is to prepare students for the job market? With a few exceptions (engineering, med school, and law school) that's never been the case.
As for the idea that a university degree would lead to a great job I've always figured that people confused cause and effect. In times gone by, relatively few people had university degrees and most of them came from wealthy families. And because of their contacts (whether it was family connections or their roommates family connections) they'd get those great jobs. In short, those people had great jobs because they were already part of the "elite" and because they were part of that group they got degrees. In other words, just the reverse of what people thought.