Practically speaking, a lot of this nonsense will continue until the higher education bubble bursts. This will happen when some influential State legislator develops a simple philosophy.
1) The sole purpose of State funding of higher education is so that graduates will be able to get better jobs, thus contributing more to the State with their career and success.
2) Make a list of majors offered by State universities, compared with how many job placements those majors’ graduates have, in their field, within six months after graduation.
3) Many of those majors have *never* placed a single graduate in a career based on that major. So why is the State subsidizing them?
4) If students are willing to pay for a major, or a graduate degree, that will not provide them with a job placement within six months after graduation, they should be free to fully fund that major or degree with their own money. But if not enough students are willing to pay, then that major should no longer be offered.
5) The same rule should apply to all elective coursework offered to students in approved majors. If that elective course substantially contributes to their major, it should be retained. If it does not, and not enough students are willing to pay for it out of their own pocket, then it should not be subsidized by the State.
The bottom line for all of this is that many students and potential employees are wasting four of their most productive work years, with only deep student loan debt to show for it. They would be better off with having no debt, and four years in a skilled trade that would earn them money. Unless they are studying one of those majors in high employer demand.
“Practically speaking, a lot of this nonsense will continue until the higher education bubble bursts.”
Which is the exact source of many problems these young adults are having. College and university isn’t about going and getting a more specified education, but more about getting a piece of paper and then getting an income the idiots feel ‘entitled’ to without gaining experience as well as becoming a hard worker. There is little point to going to school if you want to study the arts, or at all study something that can be learned through picking up a book. A real problem among some students is a lack of drive and willingness ot make an extra effort to learn something. If you ahev to be assigned a book to read about a subject you are interested in sutdying (sciences and engineering aside) then there is no reason that you should be in that field in the first place.