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Emily Rathburn
Professor Jennifer Courtney
Writing 2010
6 February 2016
Why the Higher Education System Calls for Reform
The higher education system is not what it once was. Originally, students could get a part
time job to pay for school and then graduate with a degree that would give them an upper hand in
their job searches. Colleges would do everything possible to provide the best education for its
students. Today, this is not the case. Education is no longer the priority and universities are
focused on making a profit. Countless students get degrees in their desired fields and cannot land
a job. The system is not what it once was.
Currently, the benefits of higher education are in question. For instance, David Foster
Wallace believes that university education offers a new way of thinking and analyzing situations.
He claims that graduates leave with a better outlook on life and reasoning skills. Andrew Hacker
and Claudia Dreifus support him in the idea that the undergraduate years should stretch ones
intellect. Adrianna Kezar claims that When higher education drifted too far from serving the
public goodsocial forces have redirected it (Kezar 9). Furthermore, there is some debate
about what determines if a university is successful in educating its students. Bob Hanke and
Allison Hearn claim that universities are becoming too concerned with specific outcomes at the
expense of education.
The mantra of innovation, the hegemony of technoscience, the flow of money and
information, the administrative use of information and communications technology for

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the integration of faculty into client self-service systems, the casualization of academic
labour, and the indebted student define how the production of knowledge is oriented and
how the university works (Hanke and Hearn 12).
These institutions are becoming very power hungry and are no longer prioritizing students. Many
do not get jobs in their fields of study, which renders the college education useless (Kezar 10).
Another conflict is that curriculums are often altered by corporate donors to meet their own
needs, which also takes from students (Williams). Graduates are not gaining enough from their
college experience.
Moreover, the aforementioned corporate involvement is causing monetary problems, as
well. Corporate involvement on boards of trustees is not a new phenomenon, but over the last
thirty years a new crop of corporate leaders has proven to be more assertive in directing
university curricula and research in a business-oriented direction (Bonewitz and Soley 88).
Kezar also explains that these organizations offer incentives to the faculty to meet their own
needs and make a profit for the university. In recent years, the higher education system has
become a 420 billion dollar industry (Hacker and Dreifus 12).
This dynamic exploits both teachers and students. On average, almost half of the
professors are part time workers at universities. They are not paid nearly as much as full time
professors, and have much less say in the curriculum (Kezar 15). Another monetary problem is
the price of tuition. Students may be left hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt after putting
themselves through college. Tuition charges at both public and private colleges have more than
doubledin real dollarscompared with a generation ago. For most Americans, educating their

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offspring will be the largest financial outlay, after their home mortgage, they'll ever
make (Hacker and Dreifus 1). For some students, the financial situation is very limiting.
Diversity in both race and social class is not as prominent as would be ideal. Due to a
students financial situation, choosing a college becomes increasingly difficult. A Scottish
student reported choosing the closest college to her home to save ninety pence each day in bus
fares (Reay et al. 861). This is not only limiting in the cost of tuition, but also the rigor of the
school. Many students from low income families cannot attend prestigious universities because
they must work in order to pay tuition, however, this takes away from study time which makes
success nearly impossible. An Irish student explained that he could not keep up with his
coursework and his job, and therefore would have to leave the university. Its all gone wrong for
me. Because Ive been getting no help from home Ive had to find the money for rent, food
everything basically and theres no way I can get the work done anymore. Im too
exhausted (Reay et al. 862). It simply is not possible for less privileged students to attend
prestigious universities in most cases.
Race is another issue in diversity. Many schools are largely one ethnicity and become
unappealing to minorities. There has become a hierarchy amongst higher education institutions
and most distinguished institutions cater to middle class Caucasians.
Between 1997 and 1998 the majority of ethnic groups showed increases in applicants
accepted for degree courses but there were a number which had declined. The white
category fell by 3.37 per cent but black Caribbean and black African applicants fell by
nearly twice as much; 6.01 and 6.75 percent respectively (Reay et al. 858).

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Students also reported a stigma at certain universities. One student claimed that if he attended a
primarily African American school in a bad neighborhood in England, he would have no chance
at getting a job. The same applies the other way. Some students avoid institutions such as Oxford
because they appear to pompous and African American students would be the clear minority, and
would feel uncomfortable (Reay et al. 868-870). This is a colossal issue because diversity is very
important in education. We found that students who reported positive, informal interactions
with diverse peers had higher scores on measures of more complex think- ing about people and
their behavior, cultural and social awareness, and perspective-taking skills (Hurtado).
It is imperative that the higher education system seeks reform. These institutions have
lost sight of the most important thing: education. It has become a profit seeking industry that
exploits teachers and students alike. Students are not getting the upper hand when it comes to
career searching, and are set back years in debt. Universities are severely lacking in diversity,
which makes the application process very limiting for some. It is time to change this and amend
higher education institutions.

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