The first official acknowledgment of education by correspondence came from 1883 to 1891 by Chautauqua College of Liberal Arts. This college was certified by the state of New York to grant academic degrees to students who successfully completed work at the Summer institutes and by correspondence during the academic year (Nasseh, 1997)
Personal Narrative and Research A university is defined as a higher education institution providing academic degrees (Aronowitz, 28)
With that in mind, it is important for anyone who is planning on going to a university to have a good understanding of what they are really getting. If they assume it is going to be all fun and adventure, they may find that they are mistaken and that they must devote much more time to their studies than they expected (Barrow, 1899)
That is unfortunate, and it is one of the problems that many people have with the university experience. For those who go to learn, the university can be a great choice (Boyington)
In many ways, the university is a way for the student to grow up and become who they are supposed to be. It also shapes their worldview, and can cause them to really rethink what they know about life, love, happiness, politics, religion, and other aspects of their personality and belief system (Hilmer, 339)
That can be a great blessing, or an absolute curse, depending on whether the person has the time and money to enjoy those interests and to continue to learn and grow from an academic standpoint. To the people who just need to get a degree for work and move on, they see the university as a means to an end (Townsend & Wilson, 448)
One of the consequences of our unprepared student body is an under-performing workforce. Among the skills that entry-level employees are consistently shown to lack are reading proficiency, technical aptitude, and quantitative comprehension (Daggett)
Nilson as classroom assessment techniques (CATs). And while it is necessary that CATs should be centered on the learner and not exclusively on the material or the messages that the instructor presents, what aspects of classroom dynamics should be specifically assessed is the prerogative of the instructor (Nilson, 2010)
Other factors - assessments in a business school setting The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) echoes what Nilson and other scholars have suggested: colleges and universities should shift focus from what faculty members believe is most germane in terms of their teaching to what their students are actually learning in the process. Assessment must be systematic, and it must involve quality collaboration between students, staff, administration and faculty (Stivers, 2009)
Faculty and learner-centered assessments Traditionally, assessments of student learning have involved evaluating what a student comprehends vis-a-vis factual knowledge. But a newer, more adroitly created format entails assessment as an activity to cultivate student learning skills and strategies (Webber, 2012)
Looking at the expenditure of higher education institutions, the largest increase in expenditure over the same 30-year period has been in labor costs. The administrative costs per student enrolled has increased considerably (Ladd & Fiske, 2012)
However, investment in these activities can be done in a cost-effective way that eliminates the huge budget allocations and there is need to balance the budgetary allocations with the total revenue collections for the universities. Particularly, when considering the decreasing investment of states in higher education by about 13% across board, more students are unable to get into college because this increase impacts negatively on tuition fees (Lin & Vogt, 1996)
While it is accepted that higher education, is a key to success in the world through national competitiveness and being equipped with the necessary skills, the economy does not benefit if college education is out of reach for the majority population. Similarly, the case for increased investment by colleges and universities in research, which is for the public good is laudable (Witmer, 1970)
However, there is need to extend the reach for colleges and universities to increase the number of graduates in the country thus increase national competitiveness. Funds spent on nonacademic activities, such as counseling, are often important since it has been shown to improve graduation rates and support the well-being of students while at the college (Zollinger, 1984)
The recession that swept across the United States in 2008 affected the university leading to the severe budget cuts without long-term strategic plan, which makes the University of California to be slowly starved of state public funding. (Douglass, 2010)
Despite the decline in the funding from the state, there has been a general increase in the college and university expenditures, which include academic support and services for students. (Geiger & Heller 2011)
This would make it more difficult for lawmakers to find budget cuts in the education system. This approach can be combined with stricter cost controls, so that for example specific cost factors do not increase faster than the rate of index unless there are underlying demographic changes (Stiefel & Schwartz, 2010)
Two Attempts to Explain Why Higher Education Contributes to Economic Growth i. Explores the analytic process of using "social rates of higher return" in order to judge the effectiveness of investing in higher education in regards to creating a more stable economy and society overall (Lundvall, 2007, p 6)
Particularly, the proprietary segment continues to expand and gain influence; online courses are increasingly securing a foothold while some institutions are shifting further from collegial system to hierarchical management or corporatism governance. Policy makers have called for performance assessments and indicators of the tract of student teaching (Larsen & Vincent-Lancrin, 2004)
Approximately 50% of bachelor's degree graduates had credits from community colleges. Despite efforts by the state and the federal government to cap tuition, it continued to increase (Raby & Valeau, 2009)