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Just as B.C. has started improving access
to college and university, U.S. school critics
are asking whether such access is really
worth it.

Their argument is based on the premise
that easy access to post-secondary educa-
tion has diluted its quality. Colleges and uni-
versities, dependent on state subsidies, have
gained a stronger interest in high enrol-
ments than in high standards.

The excellence of a few private universities
is paid for (in part) by staggering tuition
costs. State-run schools remain relatively
cheap and are therefore swamped with stu-
dents. ,

Robert J. Samuelson, a columnist for
Newsweek, argues that 15 to 20 per cent of
state universities and community colleges
ought to be shut down.

He'd also sharply increase tuition charges
in the surviving schools. The money saved,
says Samuelson, could help improve the
quality of high school teaching, Further edu-
cation would then be less necessary and
those who did go on would be better pre-
pared.

Herbert London, a dean at New York Uni-
versity, despairs of the post-secondary sys-
tem altogether. In an article in USA Today,
he warns that good universities are pricing
themselves out of the market. What’s more,
the system will soon lack enough students
to sustain itself.

London feels the community colleges are
especially bad. They represent “‘a misguided
faith in education as a social cure,” but they
don’t really educate their students.

This is strong stuff and even post-second-
ary educators may feel tempted to agree

 

 

 

the criticism boils down to little more than
resentment about tax money going to bene-
fit people who are not white, male, prosper-
ous and conservative.

True, today’s colleges and universities
have their quota of morons, many with
Ph.Ds and tenure. Some students are indeed
sadly ignorant of various useful skills and
important facts.

But the vast majority of faculty and stu-
dents are far more knowledgeable, skilled
and motivated than those of a generation
ago.

The critics are right about the dwindling
student reservoir — if we define students
strictly as people between the ages of 18 and
22. Most post-secondary schools already
target the whole population as potential stu-
dents. In B.C. the median age of college stu-
dents is now 24 and many classes are full of
lively students in their 60s.

The real pinch may not be lack of students
but lack of faculty. Most of today's profes-
sors started their careers in the 1960s and
will be retiring within a decade. With few
opportunities in academe these days, the
most promising students lave sought

Is college education worth cost? —

system may well be scrambling to find capa-
ble new professors.

Like the impending teacher shortage in
the public schools, a professor shortage
would force students into new, more inde-
pendent styles of learning.

Techniques now being developed in dis-
tance education may enable tomorrow's stu-
dents to work on their own, living where
they like, yet with full access to all the
materials of the world's greatest universi-
ties. Programs of study may well change
also. Standards will be as high as we choose
to set them. They will perhaps be different
from today’s, but not lower.

Far from being a misguided attempt at a
“social cure,” post-secondary education is a
basic necessity for survival in a tough and
changeable world. Far from being a kind of
finishing school for young men, it is becom-
ing a lifelong resource for everyone. Our col-
leges and universities are far from perfect,
but I can’t think of any other enterprise that
has benefitted this country more,

Crawford Kilian is a college instructor,
writer, and former school trustee.

Pacific Press Ltd. |