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Eduflation means high-cost degrees are worth less
Franklin Johnston
Friday, August 27, 2010
A degree is the largest investment you will make before age 39 and you expect good value and returns. Most of our youth don't need degrees and many degrees are poor quality. Some think people without degrees are inferior. Not true! People with degrees are not smarter than those without degrees and a degree doesn't mean you can do a job. Richard Branson and Butch Stewart are billionaires who have no degrees - inspiration for all CXC and A-level students! You have the X factor or you don't and a degree may actually stymie your enterprise. A degree is useful for work, academia or pleasure - if you like poetry, astronomy or to cook for fun - it is not a necessity. Scholars are rated by their scholarship, not by degrees. Past Mico students were erudite and competent. Algebra was taught at primary school and doing 10 GCE subjects at one sitting was normal. Not today! Degree devaluation is real and its commodification is now fact. If you can pay, the university tweaks its entry criteria to get your cash - more students, more fees, less quality! The value a degree yields is less than what it costs you - classic inflation! Businesses may be better off employing trainable CXC and A-level students than people with poor degrees, inflated expectations and negative work habits.
What drives eduflation? The convergence of financial gain and social engineering in demanding open access to degrees! The social griots want degrees for all as do profit-driven universities. The result? You can get a degree at a price; it has little value, the universities laugh all the way to the bank and you struggle to get a job. The Rhodes Scholarship is a test of global degree value. Only top universities produce them and so UWI will remain our only source. Top UK universities now require the A*(A star) for entry as the A is now passé and competition among students is fierce. They raise entry standards. We lower standards, rummage through a person's life to see what can be used to give him access. They create space but don't have qualified students. The schools produce crap and the universities use the effluent! What if our bakers put a portion of dry grass in bread because flour is scarce? We must put pressure on the Ministry of Education and schools to improve quality. We have too many degree-granting entities, given the small number of qualified students and few jobs. Our degrees are as wine, few are excellent, most are "Chateau ****************poor". Would the University Council of Jamaica and Minister Holness be complicit in this credential inflation?
A first degree is a door opener to a job, any job.You have a degree in English, you get a job as a playmaker in a hotel as you are athletic - your degree is irrelevant! First degrees should be a core of survival skills. You can grab any job, learn fast and produce. The US estimates that 35 per cent of first-degree holders are now forced to take jobs which require no degree. Here? One side effect of this is "job inflation". I will tackle this another time.
So what does a bright CXC and A-level student do? First, check the universities. Have they produced Rhodes scholars, CEOs, etc? But not politicians as there is no standard! Second, consider other means of accreditation - apprenticeships, articles, attachments, internships in retail, IT, production, telecoms, services, government and parliament. Listen up! Do you know you can become a lawyer, banker, CEO, architect, stockbroker, get an ACCA, etc, with CXC and A-level and never need a loan? What, no SLB loan? Impossible? Yes, possible!
The SLB is news, as the JLP continues its bloodletting to gain control of agencies with pools of funds, etc, to run elections. In my plan a student accepted by a university is prequalified for a bank loan, using his guarantor and the state as back up. Banks make loans!
(1) Cabinet must set new terms for financing universities and agree terms with banks for student loans - as per JDX. Students are adults and must apply to a bank for these cheap loans.
*From 2011 all loans must be made by banks. Cabinet must negotiate low interest and moratorium times with banks. SLB must administer and monitor student and bank practice; scholarships, bonds, etc, and old loans. Banks use their funds, gain a secure loan portfolio, thousands of new clients and our youth get to take charge of their lives!
*SLB will disburse grants to universities as agreed by Cabinet. The grant is, say, 30 per cent of costs and 70 per cent will be met by student loans from banks. No more grief or demonstrations!
(2) Bloated campuses must cut waste, right-size to a viable mix and deliver quality.
*The UCJ must fix entry level for first degrees. No more juggling to boost enrolment!
*Increase teaching load and reduce the years for a first degree. Some 13 months are wasted in a three-year degree; major facilities are idle as staff teach for four hours per week, 26 weeks a year. Is it good value? Students can graduate in two years with a third less debt!
(3) Cabinet must set up the machinery for competency-based tertiary accreditation.
* The state must roll out standard terms, agreements, monitoring for apprenticeships, articles, internships, pupilages, etc, for jobs from dairy technician to law associate.
*The PM must ask all firms and government agencies to take CXC and CAPE interns. The transfer of new skills, know-how and competencies to our youth will be massive.
*Cabinet must promote other career paths. Do not cave in to degree factories. Internships mean our youth get hands-on, how to run a site, prepare trial balance, service HVAC systems - after this a degree is jam! I learnt metallurgy while training as a welder. Many with degrees in metallurgy can't do a butt weld! Skill and knowledge is power! Articles with a retail, telecoms, law, media firm means low pay, but after a few years you have a profession, money in the bank, no student loan and no worry! The university graduate will have student debt for 15 years! "Headache can't dun!" Do the maths, my friend!
PM Golding and family
My faith is if you offer yourself for public office you are public property and fodder for my pen. I have cited Mr Golding's dad Tacius as he was a big politician, but his wife, son, daughter, his dog and cat are strictly off-limits! Best wishes to Ann-Merita, someone owes this dashing young lady a big apology!
Dr Franklin Johnston is an international project manager with Teape-Johnston Consultants currently on assignment in the UK.
franklinjohnston@hotmail.com
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/colum...-loans_7906969
Eduflation means high-cost degrees are worth less
Franklin Johnston
Friday, August 27, 2010
A degree is the largest investment you will make before age 39 and you expect good value and returns. Most of our youth don't need degrees and many degrees are poor quality. Some think people without degrees are inferior. Not true! People with degrees are not smarter than those without degrees and a degree doesn't mean you can do a job. Richard Branson and Butch Stewart are billionaires who have no degrees - inspiration for all CXC and A-level students! You have the X factor or you don't and a degree may actually stymie your enterprise. A degree is useful for work, academia or pleasure - if you like poetry, astronomy or to cook for fun - it is not a necessity. Scholars are rated by their scholarship, not by degrees. Past Mico students were erudite and competent. Algebra was taught at primary school and doing 10 GCE subjects at one sitting was normal. Not today! Degree devaluation is real and its commodification is now fact. If you can pay, the university tweaks its entry criteria to get your cash - more students, more fees, less quality! The value a degree yields is less than what it costs you - classic inflation! Businesses may be better off employing trainable CXC and A-level students than people with poor degrees, inflated expectations and negative work habits.
What drives eduflation? The convergence of financial gain and social engineering in demanding open access to degrees! The social griots want degrees for all as do profit-driven universities. The result? You can get a degree at a price; it has little value, the universities laugh all the way to the bank and you struggle to get a job. The Rhodes Scholarship is a test of global degree value. Only top universities produce them and so UWI will remain our only source. Top UK universities now require the A*(A star) for entry as the A is now passé and competition among students is fierce. They raise entry standards. We lower standards, rummage through a person's life to see what can be used to give him access. They create space but don't have qualified students. The schools produce crap and the universities use the effluent! What if our bakers put a portion of dry grass in bread because flour is scarce? We must put pressure on the Ministry of Education and schools to improve quality. We have too many degree-granting entities, given the small number of qualified students and few jobs. Our degrees are as wine, few are excellent, most are "Chateau ****************poor". Would the University Council of Jamaica and Minister Holness be complicit in this credential inflation?
A first degree is a door opener to a job, any job.You have a degree in English, you get a job as a playmaker in a hotel as you are athletic - your degree is irrelevant! First degrees should be a core of survival skills. You can grab any job, learn fast and produce. The US estimates that 35 per cent of first-degree holders are now forced to take jobs which require no degree. Here? One side effect of this is "job inflation". I will tackle this another time.
So what does a bright CXC and A-level student do? First, check the universities. Have they produced Rhodes scholars, CEOs, etc? But not politicians as there is no standard! Second, consider other means of accreditation - apprenticeships, articles, attachments, internships in retail, IT, production, telecoms, services, government and parliament. Listen up! Do you know you can become a lawyer, banker, CEO, architect, stockbroker, get an ACCA, etc, with CXC and A-level and never need a loan? What, no SLB loan? Impossible? Yes, possible!
The SLB is news, as the JLP continues its bloodletting to gain control of agencies with pools of funds, etc, to run elections. In my plan a student accepted by a university is prequalified for a bank loan, using his guarantor and the state as back up. Banks make loans!
(1) Cabinet must set new terms for financing universities and agree terms with banks for student loans - as per JDX. Students are adults and must apply to a bank for these cheap loans.
*From 2011 all loans must be made by banks. Cabinet must negotiate low interest and moratorium times with banks. SLB must administer and monitor student and bank practice; scholarships, bonds, etc, and old loans. Banks use their funds, gain a secure loan portfolio, thousands of new clients and our youth get to take charge of their lives!
*SLB will disburse grants to universities as agreed by Cabinet. The grant is, say, 30 per cent of costs and 70 per cent will be met by student loans from banks. No more grief or demonstrations!
(2) Bloated campuses must cut waste, right-size to a viable mix and deliver quality.
*The UCJ must fix entry level for first degrees. No more juggling to boost enrolment!
*Increase teaching load and reduce the years for a first degree. Some 13 months are wasted in a three-year degree; major facilities are idle as staff teach for four hours per week, 26 weeks a year. Is it good value? Students can graduate in two years with a third less debt!
(3) Cabinet must set up the machinery for competency-based tertiary accreditation.
* The state must roll out standard terms, agreements, monitoring for apprenticeships, articles, internships, pupilages, etc, for jobs from dairy technician to law associate.
*The PM must ask all firms and government agencies to take CXC and CAPE interns. The transfer of new skills, know-how and competencies to our youth will be massive.
*Cabinet must promote other career paths. Do not cave in to degree factories. Internships mean our youth get hands-on, how to run a site, prepare trial balance, service HVAC systems - after this a degree is jam! I learnt metallurgy while training as a welder. Many with degrees in metallurgy can't do a butt weld! Skill and knowledge is power! Articles with a retail, telecoms, law, media firm means low pay, but after a few years you have a profession, money in the bank, no student loan and no worry! The university graduate will have student debt for 15 years! "Headache can't dun!" Do the maths, my friend!
PM Golding and family
My faith is if you offer yourself for public office you are public property and fodder for my pen. I have cited Mr Golding's dad Tacius as he was a big politician, but his wife, son, daughter, his dog and cat are strictly off-limits! Best wishes to Ann-Merita, someone owes this dashing young lady a big apology!
Dr Franklin Johnston is an international project manager with Teape-Johnston Consultants currently on assignment in the UK.
franklinjohnston@hotmail.com
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/colum...-loans_7906969