No matter the college or its reputation. It is more important what you get from the experience than anything else. Higher education creates a framework for problem solving. As graduates progress through their careers they may not see an ROI that overcomes the debt burden within a reasonable timescale.

There are more issues that influence the value of a degree after graduation. Fewer initail positions are available and start at a much lower monetary value compared to the baby boomer generation. The job market is still full of highly educated and productive boomers. Leaving less of a demand for current graduates. Predictively, a large portion of boomer generation is nearing retirement in the near term.(3-5 Years). Employers will need to replace them with educated and preferably experienced graduates. This demand would most likely be serviced by Gen X and Gen Y over the current graduates.

Educational institutions run the risk of loosing their market. Their consumers are more likely to view them as in collusion with banking institutions to create Gen Debt instead of an educated workforce. This is not only an educational issue but a social issue that will take time to correct.

If inital earnings are high it has a compounding benefit. Qualified graduates entering the market now are more likely take a job earning much less in comparison to previous generations. Those unable to secure a psoition will face substaintial delays in building their income base.

Another contributing factor is the feel good approch to managing employees. A culture of making the employee feel good about their contributions to organizations instead of compensating them appropriately.

I did not put my name to this in order to protect my position.

I agree. A degree is important and college is not for everyone. Those that do choose college need to be very mindful of the major they choose. Certainly pursue fields of interest but be very mindful of later job opportunities. If studenta match interest with the cost some may make better choices. As for offering funds for budding inventors, why not? Not all great ideas come from higher education. It’s not an either/or thing. If you’ve got the guts and passion, take a risk. Higher education needs to look at its 4 year model where the first 2 years are just a repeat of high school general ed and then think about meeting the needs of todays kids. Same as high school curricula needs to be adjusted for today.

I contend that the design of higher education courses would benefit from adapting good practices used in professional development: i.e., having participants actively engaged as soon as possible, and as much as possible in a relevant, real-life activity/project. Theoretical underpinnings and other important aspects of the subject come into play on a need-to-know basis by relating such issues to the activity of the moment. For this reason, practioners provide reading materials and elaborate upon their content as relevant questions or situations arise. Yes, briefly introduce those important underpinnings that are necessary with the intention of presenting them in detail during later sessions when participants (students) are ready and curious.