My Research Proposal
Topic: College education has been going through a major change in
the past few decades. The system of higher education is not like it once was.
In the past higher education institutions had high standards and the primary
goal was to provide the best education possible to students and make sure they
provide students with the best tools possible to graduate on time. Nowadays
things have changed and higher education is becoming more and more privatized
and the primary objective today for institutions is to make a profit even if it
comes at the expense of the students. This is process is making students go
into more debt than ever before and is making it harder and harder to find a
good job right after they graduate from the institution. Student debt is higher
now than it ever was and students are taking out more loans now than ever
before.
Research Question: How has the higher education system
changed throughout the years and what effect has this change had on students?
Theory: Higher education has been going through a big transition
over the past few decades, a transition from higher education being more of a
public good that looked after the needs of the student and provided the student
with the tools and help necessary to succeed to a private good which treats the
student as a consumer. In this transition the number one goal has become to get
the most capital out of the consumer, which in this case is the student as
possible. Anything that is not providing revenue is of no use anymore and it
being taken away. Movement in the direction of greater privatization may mean
that tuition prices will increase, the student will be made into a consumer and
education will be made into a service that collects revenue from the consumer, more
attention will be put on marketing, and departments and services that do not
bring in revenue will be completely taken out or replaced by ones that do
(Johnstone, pg1). Students will be affected by this because they will have to
take out more loans to pay for the higher tuition and also they will lose out
on things such as many types of research because it will be taken out. Higher
education before was focused on bettering the society through high quality
education and high standards held by the institution but this has changed as
higher education has shifted from “high publicness” to “high privateness”
(Johnstone, pg1).
This
transition has also increased the number of for profit colleges in the nation
and has resulted in more and more students attending these schools. “Just over
30 years ago, fewer then 100,000 students attended for- profit colleges and
universities” (Wilson, pg2) but ever since then the number has grown by an
average of “9 percent per year over the past 30 years” (Wilson, pg1). Because
the number of these for profit institutions is increasing more and more
students are falling into the trap and these institutions are making efforts to
target the students who are the most vulnerable. One group that gets targeted
in particular are students that come from poor families. “For-profit
colleges have been accused of preying on poor students, loading them with debt
and pocketing their government loans” (Ford, pg1). These students are easy
targets because they can’t pay for their education and will have to take out
many loans to pay and these loans will develop high interest over time, which
means more money for these for profit colleges. “Student loans barely existed
forty years ago” (Collinge, pg1) but today because of the transition to a more
privatized higher education system “U.S. citizens borrow close to ninety
billion dollars a year in order to attend college” (Collinge, pg1). Colleges are also accepting students who are
not ready for college level work and are lowering their standards so more
students can come into the college. “The problem’s hardly limited to top
schools. Part of it is that colleges are regularly admitting students who
aren’t ready for college level work”(Riley, pg1). This is another way they are
making more money because if they let students in who are not ready than they
might end up staying an extra year to graduate and that means the student has
to take out more loans which is more money for the for profit schools.
Works Cited
1.
Johnstone,
Bruce. Privatization in and of Higher
Education in the US. . 15 Oct. 2013
<http://gse.buffalo.edu/fas/johnston/privatization.html>.
2.
Wilson,
Robin. For-Profit Colleges Change
Higher Education's Landscape . 7
Feb. 2010. 15 Oct. 2013
<http://clips.corinthiancolleges.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/chroncile-of-higher-education-for-profit-colleges-change-020810.pdf>.
3.
Riley,
Naomi. How colleges scam the working
class. 29 Apr. 2013. 15 Oct. 2013
<http://nypost.com/2013/04/29/how-colleges-scam-the-working-class/>.
4.
Ford, Andréa. "Going For
Broke." Time 177.18 (2011): 44-46. Academic Search Premier.
Web. 17 Oct. 2013.
5.
Collinge,
Alan. The Student Loan Scam. Boston: Beacon Press Books, 2009.
