Some time ago, higher education advocates lost the battle to define and justify a college education for anything other than the size of the paycheck when signing up for the first job. Forget the broadening and deepening of the mind, the ability to know and understand the world around you, the long-term benefits of communicating and computing in a technical world searching for meaning and relevancy beyond technology.
The posting below is one that I considered passing up. In my line of work, why remind anyone of the numbers reported in this news story about what happens to far too many of our graduates? But I report and comment on it because I do think we must remind ourselves that we cannot judge the utility of a college education in the first year or so after graduation. I’m afraid that is what this news report implies.
Also, this is an important reminder for higher education that career centers on our college campuses must take on new meaning in these tough times and reinvent themselves, especially in defining who they serve. It is important for universities and colleges to call back recent graduates who are struggling with the job market and help them work through the issues they face across this much more difficult landscape. Our degrees should carry some kind of warranty with them both for the short and the long term.
If higher education leaders allow reports like this to go unanswered, then it won’t be long before families sit down with their high school seniors and carefully calculate the cost of a college degree against the realities of the job market after graduation. That could mean fewer students showing up in the fall and It just seems like we cannot give up that easily.
Click to Read Article: Half of New Graduates are Jobless or Underemployed