Hannah Stratman Source 1

What influences do corpratization and prestige hold on the function of higher education and what does that tell us about the institution of higher education as a whole?

Source: Mills, Nicolaus. "The Corporatization of Higher Education". The College Issue. October 1, 2012. Education Full Text Database. 3-1-16.


This source talks mainly about the corporatization of higher education. This source was written in 2012, but I think that we can infer that it remains relevant today. Mills discusses the influence that "rankings" or the annual "Best Colleges" guide has over colleges today. Universities have begun shaping policies around winning a "Best College" ranking. In order to get these high ratings, colleges focus a lot on who they admit. He states, "Having a student body with impressive SAT scores is great; having a student body with impressive SAT scores and rejecting more applicants that a rival is better still." This strategy has pushed more and more high school students to go to the extremes to win over the attention of admissions officers. This causes middle and upper class families to direct their money toward advisers, SAT tutors and coaches for their kids before even getting to college. On top of this competitive admissions process, colleges are adding "food courts, spa-like athletic facilities, and elaborate preforming arts centers."So many colleges have increased spending for student services that (percentage wise) outnumber their increase in academic instruction and financial aid. This "prestige battle" comes with a prospect of new cash infusions (prospective students).

This source backs up everything I had already been thinking about. I believe that rankings have turned higher education into a very commercialized product. Colleges compete to be the best by creating the most luxurious amenities in order to appeal to students. Colleges have made college exceptionally harder to get into over the past several years and this creates a barrier between those who can afford college and those who can not. Though I wonder if there are still schools that underprivileged students could attend and still receive a quality education?? The hard admission restrictions have lead even elite students to cheat, showing desperation in these desperate times. Mills says also that there has been a bigger increase on student spending than actual academic instruction and financial aid. Which brings about the question: Are students getting the best education out of the high tuition they are spending? Or are we spending all of this money for the sole purpose to receive these lavish benefits that come with it? To focus on my research question, I would say that today, corporatization holds a HUGE impact over higher education. Corporatization to me is making a product that people are going to want to spend money on. Administrators are "selling" a higher education to this consumer group of students and their families. Prestige goes right along those same lines. Universities value prestige and the way people look at it is; the more prestigious the college is, the more students [or parents of the students] are going to want to [their child] to go there. This forms the question, "Does the most prestigious universities still offer the best education, or is it because admissions are restricted to the best of the best, or are they prestigious for some thing else (athletics)?"

This Mills article raises the questions:
"Is college tuition paying for essentials or just luxurious amenities?"
"Are there still schools that don't cost as much that still offer students with a great eduction?"
"Does the most prestigious universities still offer the best education, or is it because admissions are restricted to the best of the best, or are they prestigious for some thing else (athletics)?"
These questions are probably a little more research based. I feel like next I could research the negative aspects of making colleges so hard to get into, like the cheating scandal at New York City's Stuyvesant High School to show that the amount of pressure this puts on students and financially on their parents. I could then look into lower class students and what they are doing do to this change i tuition over the years, making it extremely hard to afford a college education.