It’s been a remarkable year for higher education. We ranked the most important events of 2018 in last week’s article. But now it’s time to look ahead. Here is what members of the Martin Center staff would like to see happen in academia in 2019. Jenna A. Robinson, President More States Adopting Due Process … Continue reading “What We Would Like to See in the New Year”
The partnership between America and its colleges and universities is broken. Americans are disappointed with higher education. A majority of Americans (57 percent) now say higher education fails to provide students with good value for the money they and their families spend, according to the Pew Research Center. Universities are equally disappointed with the students … Continue reading “Fixing the Divide Between the Public and Higher Ed”
In his recent book The Case Against Education, Professor Bryan Caplan argues that most Americans derive little benefit from their years of schooling in terms of skill and knowledge. What they get instead are educational credentials—the diplomas and degrees attesting that they have officially gotten through some level of education. This quest for credentials that … Continue reading “What Can We Do About Degree Inflation?”
Perhaps you have noticed that many jobs requiring only basic skills and a cooperative attitude are now walled off to Americans who don’t possess a college degree.
The mania for college credentials hampers upward mobility for individuals without a college degree. They are confined to the shrinking and mostly low-pay segment of the labor market where educational credentials still don’t matter. (As I argued here, that explains much of the earnings gap between workers with and without college degrees.)
Is the college diploma a sign of advanced skills or just a screening technique?