The commercialization of higher education and its impact on universities

College education encompasses several years of hard study following high school graduation. The process takes place within accredited educational institutions such as colleges and universities and its primarily intent is to prepare students in various domains. University graduates have better chances at finding well-paid jobs in fields such as medicine, law, economics or politics.

The overall number of university students has significantly increased world wide. Most pupils chose a high education hoping that it would open numerous career opportunities and improve the quality of their lives. A recent study has revealed that "in most developed countries, a high proportion of the population (up to 50 per cent) now enter higher education at some time in their life. Higher education is therefore very important to national economies, both as a significant industry in its own right, and a source of trained and educated personnel for the rest of the economy." (Wikipedia, Higher Education, 2006)

2. Thesis statement

As the process of education and its impressive role in society continue to grow, they tend to be transformed into an industry: a business industry instead of an educational system. During the past years, universities seem to have placed a rather significant emphasis on public relations and developed means of attracting new students.

The obvious question now is whether the students have been affected by these transformations. Have the tutors' expectations from students changed to face the expectations of society? Or have the students reconsidered their attitude towards education and its institutions?

Some specialists believe that the educational system places more emphasize on the marketing side of their activities in the meaning that they wish to pleasantly present their universities. In other words, they believe that the educational system is tending to become a consumer based activity.

4. Current issues in U.S. education

The American high education system is internationally acknowledged for its revolutionary results and high quality of the trainings offered to students. Proof of this stands the great number of foreign students that attend U.S. universities in order to benefit of specialized assistance. However successful the educational system is, it still has some drawbacks, namely in four fields: the curricular area, funding, control and competitiveness.

Curriculum issues

When discussing the curricular area of the subjects to be taught in universities, scholars disagree whether or not religion should be considered a compulsory subject. The religious debate brought about numerous arguments in favor and against and even brought about new conflict situations. For instance, some scholars state that "schools should be nationalized and the curriculum changed to a national standard" (Wikipedia, Education in the United States, 2006).

Further more, scholars also disagree on the proposition of teaching all subjects in English, placing more emphasis on evolution and sex education. Some tutors believe that the subject they teach are being neglected and slowly begin to die. For example, "it has been reported that astronomy has not been taught enough in schools." (Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Astronomy Education in the United States). "It has also been reported that geography is not taught enough is schools." (Geography About, Geographic Education and Public Policy).

Funding issues

The American high education institutions gather their funding supplies from the state government, sponsors and scholarly taxes and the constant problem with funding is that they are most of the time insufficient. An intrusion in the personal fund handling by universities is the bill "No Child Left Behind. The act gives the Department of Education the right to withhold funding if it believes a school, district, or even a state is not complying and is making no effort to comply." (New York Times, Teachers Dig Deeper to Fill Gap in Supplies, 2002).

Control issues

Because the American Constitution does not contain any legislations on education, the U.S. government can not exercise its controlling role over the educational system. However, given the fact that the U.S. As a country financially supports the educational process and most of its institutions, the government can influence the decisions made by universities and colleges. In other words, "the federal government uses the threat of decreased funding to enforce laws pertaining to education." (the U.S. Department of Education, the Federal Role in Education, 2006)

Competitiveness issues

Even if America has produced many valuable science and literary men, the sad fact remains that the overall statistics reveal that "the national results in international comparisons have often been below the average of developed countries. In addition, many business leaders have expressed concerns that the quality of education given in the U.S. system is generally below acceptable standards, and should be adapted in order to conform to the needs of an evolving world." (National Center for Education Statistics, International Outcomes of Learning in Mathematics Literacy and Problem Solving, 2005).

5. Changes in the educational system mixture of the above mentioned issues led to a migration of the educational system from a student based activity to a marketing activity. The curricular dispute is now of public interest and along with funding led to an increased desire to attract more students. These students would pay rather high scholarly taxes and would contribute to the further development of the institutions.

By applying in practice what they used to teach, universities were able to enlarge the number of students and improve their images to their public. However, this process required some sacrifice from the part of the students which mostly revolved around less accent on the tutorial process, taking all forms from exaggerate expectations to insufficient assistance.

Professor Deborah Holdstein analyzed the recent developments in the American educational system in her book Challenging Perspectives: Reading Critically About Ethics and Values. Her general advice to all readers is to open their eyes and minds to all available possibilities and try to understand not only the outcome of a process, but also its hidden reasons and consequences.

Challenging Perspectives encourages students to grapple with their own views of the world as they are challenged by moral and ethical issues suggested by or directly discussed in a particular selection. Students gain a solid foundation in constructive questioning and analysis, giving them the confidence to take on complex issues that come up in reading and in daily life."(Powells, Book review)

In a nutshell, while trying to cope with the technological and social development, the educational system was forced to take numerous courses of action which affected in both good and bad the students. They must not be discouraged by this, but should clearly analyze the process and by analyzing it they would be able to perfect their critical eye as well develop an appreciation for moral rules and values.