Universities can’t fulfil the myth, but can’t become vocational schools either

Re:Universities can’t fulfil the myth, but can’t become voca... by DanielBMarkham on Saturday May 31, 2014 @04:52PM (#7827233)

I'm going to upvote this, but it was a muddled bit of rambling. In parts I could almost feel the author pull his punches in a sad effort to try to make as many people happy as possible.

The key problem is this: whatever a university is, it's too expensive for the ability of the average student to pay back. That means it's a bad deal for both the student and society. Paying for more of it is just going to continue the spiral.

I have a different question. We know that training for future jobs is a requirement of some post-secondary institution. That's just a given for many fields with the complexities of modern life. So what about a good, solid, liberal arts education? The one thing that universities were supposed to be masters of for centuries? The one thing that allows each of us to participate in and enjoy life to its fullest? Where does society go for that?

We can't go to the universities, because we'll end up in a long, pointless argument about what the purpose of universities are. And, frankly, there's a lot of jumping on the bandwagon going on at most institutions, just google silly college courses.

Can we offload that to local tutors? Teach online? Is there some delivery mechanism for a liberal arts background that we haven't considered yet?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Universities can’t fulfil the myth, but can’t become voca... by notahacker on Saturday May 31, 2014 @05:24PM (#7827320)

>So what about a good, solid, liberal arts education? The one thing that universities were supposed to be masters of for centuries? The one thing that allows each of us to participate in and enjoy life to its fullest? Where does society go for that?

Europe. Reduce your university fees by an order of magnitude or two, study for longer with less emphasis on grades, and enjoy a bit of culture on the side. I'm only half-joking.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Universities can’t fulfil the myth, but can’t become voca... by analog31 on Saturday May 31, 2014 @07:04PM (#7827567)

>>> Is there some delivery mechanism for a liberal arts background that we haven't considered yet?

The printing press?

I don't mean to be snarky, but it does occur to me that the heyday of the liberal arts education was also a time when traveling to the university was necessary in order to have physical access to the sources of knowledge.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Universities can’t fulfil the myth, but can’t become voca... by pekk on Saturday May 31, 2014 @07:01PM (#7827558)

> So what about a good, solid, liberal arts education? The one thing that universities were supposed to be masters of for centuries? The one thing that allows each of us to participate in and enjoy life to its fullest? Where does society go for that?

Any liberal arts college?

[ Parent | on HN ]