I followed Pete's link to
NYtimes article on student debt, aptly titled, Fools Gold. It is basically a snipet of people sharing their stories about their student loan debt. I couldn't agree more with their logic behind what our universities should be structured like here in America. This is what they said:
I never understood the reason why so much money is asked. Fear of debt and high tuition prices (or overpriced accommodation nearby) are the best way to discriminate between the better off and the less so. This prevents from the majority of society to access to good education, a majority that has proportionally within its ranks the future thinkers of a nation.
Also, what I cannot comprehend is how it is that society accepts this system. One would expect that a more educated society is in the interest of all the nation. Why then prevent people from accessing this education?
The whole idea of seeing if higher education is “worth the debt” is completely wrong. It is not only worth to one individual, but to society as a whole. Somebody with higher education - thankfully - would make better and more informed choices be it at the work place, or when voting, raising a family, analysing the news, participating in the public debate, being critical of the political power….Also, making it “worth it”, devalues academic degrees. People get an incentive to study a degree that gives them a specific job, rather than a degree that teaches them ways to analyse things differently, think creatively, make reasonable choices, preserve their critical spirit and curiosity, all of which can be applied anywhere. It removes people from research, the humanities and classical studies.
University is about having people being able to think for themselves and adapt to various situations.
I am French. Higher education is free (or very close to), enormous amount of people go to University, most are bared after two years because they do not have the level or the motivation. But they could give it a try.The levelling is dependent on your capacity at working and if students from better of families have a higher rate of success, the possibility for all levels of society to succeed is possible. It is also possible and it is increasingly done, to return to university for a year or two while having a job. Again this participates to have a more educated and informed society.
And after all, our graduates are not worse than any other country. If our universities make it rarely in the “world league” it is because the student:staff ratio remains high (but mostly at early university levels since at masters level it is between 1:2 and 1:4), there is little sport, large turn out, and above all, no ranking within France herself (all institutions just provide education) and because fundamentaly we see higher education differently from anglo-saxon countries.Another factor might be the wages after leaving university. But since education is cheap in France, it does not mean that we have to get a high wage job to repay a student debt. We can do what we like.
Why can’t people study for the pleasure of studying, increasing their knowledge and skill of analysis? Society benefits.
Thinking of university and higher education in general for the sole purpose of giving jobs needs to go. University is so much more than just that, but this is not quantifyiable.
Amaury
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