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What ever happened to a focus on learning?
ACTA thinks "education" is what matters at colleges and universities. And that's why we recently released an expanded What Will They Learn? website, which focused on what students are expected to study during their years in college. Regrettably, our findings were pretty shocking -- at most schools, students can graduate with massive gaps in their knowledge. Administrators and faculty have in place what is known as "distribution requirements" which let students pick and choose often from hundreds of courses rather than directing them to what they will need to know. It should come as no surprise that employers complain students are not adequately prepared for the workplace.
If that weren't bad enough, now comes a new report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics which underscores how "education-free" our colleges have become. According to the Bureau, published in the Huffington Post, college students have it easy: the average student spends 8.4 hours sleeping, 3.5 hours on leisure and sports, and 1.5 hours on traveling, while only 3.6 hours are spent on "educational activities" and 2.9 hours on "work and work-related" activities. That's an average of 13.4 hours on sleep, travel and leisure versus only 6.5 hours on work -- academic and otherwise.
These results are sorry indeed -- and symptomatic of a system of higher education that appears to spend more time, money and effort catering to students through lavish amenities and entertainment, than a rigorous and stimulating educational program. Trustees should be concerned and should take steps to ensure institutional priorities and incentives focus students on learning, rather than partying and playing.
Posted by Tom Bako on September 26, 2010 at September 26, 2010 08:55 AM
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