There is a growing consensus among those observing the changing state of higher education that we are losing sight of the core worth of education as a means to foster intellectual pluralism or the life of the mind.
The corporate university model of education that strives mainly to teach super-specific skills and thus ensure career placement is replacing the traditional university, which taught how to learn rather than what to know.
Those of the corporate model argue that, with research, rising costs and distance learning playing an increasing role in a 21st century college education, those tenure-track professors only represent a threat to the success of the notion of modern college as a place for leisure and enjoyment over academics and study.
After all, they argue, if polling indicates that most students expect a “college experience” featuring booze and babes with a curriculum that isn’t too demanding, then replacing most professors with graduate students and teaching assistants would only be to meet the demands of the market, right?
The problem, as Jon Stewart pointed out last week on The Daily Show, is that there’s also “a market for cocaine and hookers.”
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