Are Too Many People Going to College? By Charles Murray From: The American Magazine: Monday, September 8, 2008.

“…We should look at the kind of work that goes into acquiring a liberal education at the college level in the same way that we look at the grueling apprenticeship that goes into becoming a master chef.

As long as it’s taboo to say that college is intellectually too demanding for most young people, we will continue to create unrealistic expectations among the next generation.

College looms so large in the thinking of both parents and students because it is seen as the open sesame to a good job. Reaping the economic payoff for college that shows up in econometric analyses is a long shot for large numbers of young people.

When high-school graduates think that obtaining a B.A. will help them get a higher- paying job, they are only narrowly correct… But why does the B.A. produce that result? For whom does the B.A. produce that result? For some jobs, the economic premium for a degree is produced by the actual education that has gone into getting the degree. Lawyers, physicians, and engineers can earn their high incomes only by deploying knowledge and skills that take years to acquire, and degrees in law, medicine, and engineering still signify competence in those knowledges and skills. But for many other jobs, the economic premium for the B.A. is created by a brutal fact of life about the American job market: Employers do not even interview applicants who do not hold a B.A. Even more brutal, the advantage conferred by the B.A. often has nothing to do with the content of the education. Employers do not value what the student learned, just that the student has a degree.

Employers value the B.A. because it is a no-cost (for them) screening device for academic ability and perseverance. The more people who go to college, the more sense it makes for employers to require a B.A. When only a small percentage of people got college degrees, employers who required a B.A. would have been shutting themselves off from access to most of the talent. With more than a third of 23-year-olds now getting a B.A., many employers can reasonably limit their hiring pool to college graduates because bright and ambitious high-school graduates who can go to college usually do go to college. An employer can believe that exceptions exist but rationally choose not to expend time and money to identify them. Knowing this, large numbers of students are in college to buy their admission ticket—the B.A.

The problem begins with the message sent to young people that they should aspire to college no matter what.

The acceptable excuses for not going to college have dried up. The more people who go to college, the more stigmatizing the failure to complete college becomes. Today, if you do not get a B.A., many people assume it is because you are too dumb or too lazy. And all this because of a degree that seldom has an interpretable substantive meaning…”

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Real Education. Four Simple Truths for Bringing America's Schools Back to Reality. By Charles Murray. Wednesday, August 6, 2008.

“…Too many people are going to college. Almost everyone should get training beyond high school, but the number of students who want, need, or can profit from four years of residential education at the college level is a fraction of the number of young people who are struggling to get a degree. We have set up a standard known as the BA, stripped it of its traditional content, and made it an artificial job qualification. Then we stigmatize everyone who doesn't get one. For most of America's young people, today's college system is a punishing anachronism…”

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Universities seek any extra money. By Rebecca Todd - The Press. Monday, 15 September 2008.

“...Scarce tertiary education dollars should be invested in universities, not individual students who already receive four times the OECD average in financial support, vice-chancellors say.

However, students, who are lobbying for a universal student allowance, say much of that support is in the form of loans for fees that go direct to institutions rather than students.

New Zealand Vice-chancellors' Committee chairman Professor Roger Field said universities needed more public investment, while provision of student support was "more than adequate". "For New Zealand universities, the underlying issue is the balance between quality and affordability," he said. "If the pendulum swings too far one way, university education will be affordable for students but the quality of that education will be compromised."

Education at a Glance found that New Zealand's tertiary qualification completion rates were the third-lowest of 19 OECD countries, with 45% of tertiary education entrants leaving without a qualification, compared with an average of 31%.”

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Kiwi degrees 'worth less' Wage advantage over school leavers is slim. LANE NICHOLS - The Dominion Post. Thursday, 11 September 2008.

“...The value of gaining a New Zealand tertiary qualification is in question after the publication of a report comparing international education systems. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's Education at a Glance report shows Kiwis with diploma-level qualifications or higher enjoy a "relatively slim" salary advantage over people who left school and went straight into jobs. A tertiary qualification also has little bearing on someone's employment prospects in New Zealand. The difference in employment rates between New Zealanders with and without degrees is among the lowest in the developed world. However, universities are defending the worth of degrees.”

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How to transform experience into qualification.Tuesday, 26 August 2008. Press Release: Universal College Of Learning.

“…We expect that the establishment of this centre will help the overall tertiary qualification statistic for the Wanganui region. Currently we have the 3rd to lowest level of tertiary qualification in New Zealand yet we know there are so many people out there who have the skills and knowledge that could be converted to qualifications,” she says…”

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AUS Tertiary Update. Thursday, 11 September 2008. Column: Association of University Staff.

“…The OECD notes that university-level entry rates have risen by almost 50 percent on average across its member countries in the last decade. It also goes on to observe, however, that different countries have responded in different ways to this challenge. Nordic countries, for example, “have accepted high public spending on tertiary education as an investment that pays dividends to both individuals and society”. Other countries, including New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, have, however, “expanded their university population by making students pay a larger share of the cost”.
Of the total population aged 25 to 64 that has attained tertiary education, New Zealand ranks towards the top at 38 percent against an OECD average of 27 percent. As to completion rates in tertiary education in the figures that are available, New Zealand ranks second to bottom at 54 percent, just above the US at 47 percent and well below the OECD average of 69 percent…”

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Report Highlights Need To Invest In Universities.Thursday, 11 September 2008. Press Release: Vice Chancellors' Committee.

“…“As the trainers of our professional workforce, New Zealand universities play a crucial role in society. Investment in them must be at a level that allows universities to continue to produce high quality graduates, pay competitive salaries to academic staff, invest in infrastructure, develop research and teaching capability and provide services and facilities for students,” Professor Field says…”

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Victorious Magazine. 2008 Spring. From the Vice-Chancellor.

“…We know that people see Victoria’s central role as creating new knowledge through original research, and producing high-quality graduates who are prepared for the workforce, adaptable and flexible, and able to contribute to the future of business, industry and society in general. We share this vision. We know from our business stakeholders that they are interested in student placements, industry collaboration, curriculum development and in having teaching and guest lectureship opportunities. They want to see our leading researchers and graduates showcased and celebrated. I would like to see more innovative models which allow Victoria to partner with the business community as a way of building a successful and competitive economic environment. I look to the business community as well as our own staff for strategies, input and involvement to achieve our mutually beneficial goals…”

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University means Business. By Brett Minchington MBA.

The inspiration and motivation for "University means Business" has been building over the past 11 years as I worked my way through an undergraduate degree in Marketing and more recently a Master in Business Administration (MBA).

I have seen too many students’ complete undergraduate and postgraduate degrees only to find themselves in a job that has no relevance to their chosen field (and not by choice!). After numerous hours speaking with and interviewing students a common theme emerged, "We know what to do, but we don't really know how to do it."

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Making People Count. Bright Magazine. issue 29: July / August 2008. By Diana Burns.

“…With the country reportedly hemorrhaging workers leaving for higher pay overseas, skilled job vacancies getting harder to fill and the visible trends offering little hope of improvement, it is perhaps surprising that employers do not sit with heads bowed, whimpering…”

“Yes, infrastructure and equipment are important, but you always need people to run the machines. The country needs trained and motivated people to generate wealth, and we’ve been a bit careless about developing them.”

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Developing a Personal Grading Plan. By David A. Frisbie and Kristie K. Waltman.Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, Fall 1992

“…With regard to the purpose of grades, the position we will assume and defend is that grades are intended mainly to communicate the achievement status of students. The grade, then, symbolizes the extent to which a student has attained the important instructional goals of the reporting period for which the grade is assigned. Grades would not be needed if there were no need to communicate achievement to students and parents (or others outside the school setting). Grades are not essential to the instructional process: teachers can teach without them and students can and do learn without them…”

“…Grades do serve several other important functions that are secondary to their communication role, however. Grades provide incentives to learn for many students. Most students are motivated to attain the highest grades and to receive the recognition that often accompanies such grades, and they are motivated to avoid the lowest grades and the negative outcomes that sometimes are associated with those grades. Grades also provide information to students for self-evaluation, for analysis of strengths and weaknesses, and for creating a general impression of academic promise, all of which may enter into educational and career planning. Finally, grades are used to communicate students' performance levels to others who want to know about past achievement or want to forecast future academic success. Prospective employers and those who are charged with deciding who qualifies for honors, who is eligible for basketball, or who should be the class valedictorian…”

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Consultation Paper. The UK Honours Degree: Provision of Information. September 2005. Issued by Universities UK and the Standing Conference of Principals.

“…In the discussions with other groups, organisations and colleagues, we have come across a widespread view that there is a need to consider enhancing the information made available to students, employers and other stakeholders about achievement and, as a consequence, making changes to the degree classification system…”

“…Our discussions have led us to propose that further and detailed consideration be given to a transcript-led system for measuring and recording achievement which will incorporate a much-reduced summative scale of Distinction, Pass and Fail…”

“…there is a view that undue weight is being attached to the overall honours degree classification, which may not be the best way of providing students with the detailed information they need about their performance, and of providing employers with the information they need to select employees…”

“…Despite the introduction of the transcript, the emphasis on the honours classification attained – the single summative judgement - as a means of differentiating student achievement, has endured…”

“…It is arguable that the honours degree classification system, which reduces the information about student achievement to six broad categories of classification, is too blunt a tool to fully capture the qualities and capabilities of the modern student body in an effective manner. Increasingly, students and employers need – and want - to know more about what underlies the summative judgement…”

“…Changes to the labour market have resulted in a degree becoming a minimum expectation for a wider range of occupations…”

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President's Column. By Joel Cosgrove. Salient magazine. 14 Jul, 2008

"...Yes not everyone needs to go to university. Polytech and apprenticeships are important parts of societal education. The privatisation of these areas is staggering. What was expected of the bosses in the past i.e. on the job training, now is provided at the easily applied for $6000 two year course. Not everyone needs a university education.Employers do not look first for your degree. Your volunteering/work experience is key. Yet I defend everyone's' ability to enter university. We have no clear methodology for accepting or denying people into tertiary education. secondary schooling is a joke in that respect, it is the unreality if nothing else..." Comment by Matthew Cunningham.

"...The issue here is returning university education to what it is supposed to be about intellectual and academic excellence rather than pieces of paper to get jobs. Well, the former is an ideal, and the latter is a reality; I personally think that the university experience is a combination of both. If the entire tertiary institution were about academic excellence and not about pieces of paper, the uni would be losing drastic amounts of money due to lack of enrolment, and the students who did choose to attend would have to pay higher fees to compensate. Fact of the matter is, tertiary education IS a money-making business - an industry like any other. One can argue all they want about free education for all, but in reality university is about distinguishing ones' self from the crowd through, as you call it, 'academic excellence'. It is by nature selective - not everybody can be 'excellent', and those that choose to be usually have some sort of reason behind it - financial reward chief amongst them. That is why state-guaranteed education only goes as high as secondary school..."

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ITF. Investing in Skills and Productivity. Election Statement 2008.

"...If you find the qualifications system confusing and cumbersome, it's probably because New Zealand has too many qualifications and too many systems. There are two million workers in New Zealand, 600 occupations, and 6,000 approved qualifications operating in four different unconnected systems.

“…The New Zealand Government spends more than $4 billion a year on tertiary education and training – and New Zealand enterprises and industries are estimated to spend over an additional $1 billion. We need a better understanding of how this investment impacts on improvements in productivity and skill use and more explicit activities focused on ensuring these improvements happen. Individual businesses and industries have good knowledge about their current and future skill needs. Government needs to tap into that knowledge more effectively to make the best use of tertiary education funding, including ensuring that the right people get high quality training and that better use is made of existing skills as well as those gained through that training..."

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Response to President’s Column. By Joel Cosgrove. 1 Sep, 2008. Salient magazine.

Tom: September 2nd, 2008 at 5:10 pm.

“I agree that University is not just about passing papers, but when passing papers it is important to strive to achieve the best to your ability. Your achievements should be fully acknowledged, rather than a simple pass or fail method based on a degree by degree basis. I wonder what percentage of students are actually involved in extra curricular activity in New Zealand’s universities? While most people will tell you that it is important to partake in such activities, rather than just focusing on completing a degree. There does not seem to be a culture or value based incentives to encourage students to partake in the greater pursuits that universities have to offer. So the question is; how can incentives be created that will motivate students to become more involved in the university community, including student politics. Victoria University has taken a small step by implementing the Victoria plus award: http://www.victoria.ac.nz/st_services/careers/career_development/victoriaPlus/about_victoria_plus.aspx which gives credits for completing tasks that it deems worthy of credit, for example “Helping new students settle in as a Campus Coach” While it may not be the use that it is creators intended. I believe that Academic Score: http://www.academicscore.com/ could be a useful tool to effectively show that simply obtaining a degree is not the be all and end all of tertiary development. This could further motivate universities to broaden their view on their qualifications. Alternatively the universities could be encouraged to head back to their more traditional role of focusing on pushing the boundaries of academic excellence to benefit society as a whole rather than balancing this role with the sausage factory degree production system which is currently happening. Once students, employers and society become aware that there is more to education than academic study, and that there is more to university than doing the bare minimum to pass papers to get a degree. Hopefully then we can move on and make university the stronger community that it deserves to be.”

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The advantage conferred by the B.A. often has nothing to do with the content of the education…

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