Kate Zernike

Kate Zernike aptly points out the massive transitional period that the "higher" education system finds itself in. We have become a population that believes that college is there to specifically train you (according to your major) for a career that provides wealth, happiness and a fulfilling life. The colleges themselves must react and adapt to the current enrolling "marketplace", and adjust their courses to stay competitive. They are still businesses after all.

I found the statistics about enrolling UCLA students to be quite remarkably efficient in depicting the change in goals or aspirations of entering freshman. In 1971, only 37 percent of students said that it was essential to be "very well off financially". While in 2009, that number had jumped to a 78 percent, and the idea of developing a meaningful philosophy in life had been sufficiently downgraded. The majors and classes that colleges and universities offer are directly related to the interests and concerns expressed by the student body, and this is a problem.

Students have taken the concept of "higher" learning and turned it into a "hire me" learning. Kids today absolutely believe that if they go to "this" school, get "this" degree, there will be "that" job waiting for them on the other side. However, the Association of American Colleges and Universities has found through focus groups with employers, that the employers are far more concerned with prospective employees possessing excellent critical thinking skills, analytical reasoning, and the ability to effectively convey your ideas be it orally or on paper. These principals are left for dead, so to speak, with philosophy and classical study majors programs being gutted for more flashy classes such as "Financing Research Commercialization."

This reflects the general problem, especially in America, that the education system from top to