Rachel Whitaker Source 3

A) What should Americans be expecting from higher education?

B) Burk, Bruce, and Michelle Johnstone. "Access to Higher Education: The Hope for Democratic Schooling in America." Higher Education in Europe 29.1 (2004): 19-31. ERIC. Web. 2 Mar. 2016.

Students should come looking for diversity and success. Not only should students come to college looking for a good education, but also for socialization that comes with college life. Students should be learning in the classroom and improving their skills by practice and experience. Higher Education, in effect, should be providing those opportunities for students. That is what the are demanding, so that is what should be supplied. However, the university has its hands tied in a lot of cases, between policymakers and lack of funding, there is little that the university can provide and leaves the student to make up the difference.

In regards to my question, this journal led me to an answer. There are many things that students want out of college: experience, knowledge, social growth and much more. The tuition they are paying should be covering all of that for what the cost is, however, it is hard to meet the expectations of every incoming student with the limited amount of money coming in as supplement to tuition. Due to this we see the blame being put on policymakers for demanding more from universities but not giving them the money to fund it. I have a hard time choosing a "bad guy" in this situation because overtime I read a new source the finger is pointed in a new direction. But that is what I get to explore moving forward.

This was a great source on the side of higher ed. The struggles they have with accommodating students from very different backgrounds is a hard job. Not only that, but a lot of times they are given protocols and quotas to reach and no funding to do that with which leaves the universities at a loss for money. In order to understand the side of higher education, we have to look past the known corruptions of some schools and look at the joint struggle of many institutions.


Further Questions:
What are universities forced to spend money on by policymakers or by their donors? How often does higher ed suffer from unfunded mandates?