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Diploma mills operate worldwide, not just in China
By Levin Shurtz |
June 17, 2011, Friday
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DEAR Mr Wan Lixin:
I read with interest your article on diplomas and universities ("Diploma mills lose sight of the purpose of education," June 1).
I believe you will find it very interesting to study the history of Australian Universities, rather than American.
When I graduated from university, my class was the final year where university education was 100 percent free and universities were fully funded by government. That was 1986.
The next year the government introduced measures whereby students needed to take student loans to fund their degree and universities needed to find alternative sources of income.
The first change was the introduction of full fee-paying foreign students. For the first time, university entrance was now based on financial rather than intellectual ability.
I mention these changes, because in the last 25 years since this change, the university's output has changed, and reflects strongly the comments of your article.
Before 1986, university students were taught to think, perhaps in a particular way for a particular discipline, but the main objective was to learn how to think.
If you wanted to learn a trade or gain skills directly attributable to a particular job, you would attend a TAFE or technical school.
These institutes were always self-funding to a particular degree.
Now universities churn out replicas that have learned subjects by rote, but have little understanding.
Originally business believed the concept of producing graduates that are job ready a worthy objective, and of course students needed to be able to work immediately to pay off the student loans. Now I think they are reconsidering, as teaching employees to think has become the responsibility of business, which they achieve with varying success.
Levin Shurtz
Shanghai
I read with interest your article on diplomas and universities ("Diploma mills lose sight of the purpose of education," June 1).
I believe you will find it very interesting to study the history of Australian Universities, rather than American.
When I graduated from university, my class was the final year where university education was 100 percent free and universities were fully funded by government. That was 1986.
The next year the government introduced measures whereby students needed to take student loans to fund their degree and universities needed to find alternative sources of income.
The first change was the introduction of full fee-paying foreign students. For the first time, university entrance was now based on financial rather than intellectual ability.
I mention these changes, because in the last 25 years since this change, the university's output has changed, and reflects strongly the comments of your article.
Before 1986, university students were taught to think, perhaps in a particular way for a particular discipline, but the main objective was to learn how to think.
If you wanted to learn a trade or gain skills directly attributable to a particular job, you would attend a TAFE or technical school.
These institutes were always self-funding to a particular degree.
Now universities churn out replicas that have learned subjects by rote, but have little understanding.
Originally business believed the concept of producing graduates that are job ready a worthy objective, and of course students needed to be able to work immediately to pay off the student loans. Now I think they are reconsidering, as teaching employees to think has become the responsibility of business, which they achieve with varying success.
Levin Shurtz
Shanghai
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