That discussion has happened in the United States, and there are large criticisms of how much of an effectiveness the system has in delivering higher value to those enrolled. Nicholas Ladany, the president of San Francisco Bay University, discussed these matters in the recent article in Forbes emphasizing on the need for the deep changes to eliminate the fundamentals of the problem.
Ladany also notes that the first-year student retention rate is 83 percent, while graduation rate is 41 percent within four years according to the NCES hence latent inefficiencies in the system. Over a long period of time, tertiary education has tended more towards the production of knowledge than the teaching/learning process. This attribute can still be seen in most of the institutions even to date, where faculty positions are hired based on the qualification attained rather than capability to teach.
Most university teachers get hired without knowing how to teach, how to design curricula, and how to effectively support student learning through formal educational programs and training, and as a result the students, overall success rates decline, taking longer durations to complete their degrees, and learning from essentially out-dated knowledge thematic areas. This show that there is need to shift focus from awards attempting to teach excellence and identifying contents that are most relevant in today’s society.
This staffing crisis in higher education worsens the problem. Current guidelines and structures of many educational institutions are not equipped sufficiently to handle today’s student requirements due to governance frameworks that inhibit the envisioning and development of new ideas, as well as funding structures that hinder cost-free education while promoting deficitary student funding.
The discussed ideas inspired by Ladany contribute to a new approach which, in fact, highlights the student-driven process of education. This comprises discrete mass supportive structures, appropriateness of curriculum offering and quality teaching. Furthermore, reconsideration of the financial and governance structures is vital to change the pedagogical process and provide the educational environment that will be more flexible.
Fixing these systemic problems will help higher education regain the trust it has lost and deliver on its promise to students’ success for those who previously could not dream of it. The call to action is clear: radical change is needed in order to salvage the situation in the field of higher education degree completion.