Declining by Degrees: Higher Education at Risk
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Artist: Artist Not ProvidedBrand: PBS
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 120 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-09-06
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Pbs (Direct)
DVD Reviews of Declining by Degrees: Higher Education at Risk
DVD Review: good
Summary: 4 Stars
discussion of higher education, a little narrowly focused on certain kinds of institutions (large not highly selective state schools).DVD Review: Strong on Problems, Weak on Solutions
Summary: 4 Stars
Declining by Degrees is a sobering look at the current state of higher education. The film examines four very-different institutions: the University of Arizona, Amherst College, Western Kentucky University, and the Community College of Denver. As a college professor, I could relate to many aspects of this documentary.
The two-hour film focuses on three topics. The first hour concerns student life and its relation to the decline in academic standards on U.S. campuses. The next 30 minutes focus on financial issues pertaining to higher education. The final 30 minutes focus on the role of athletics on campus. I thought that the first hour was excellent, but that the last hour was somewhat disappointing. Most viewers won't find the financial issues particularly engaging; Declining by Degrees has little new to say about athletics.
Declining by Degrees is also very short on solutions. Those involved in the video maintain that the only way to save higher education is by spending more tax dollars. Given that the Government has already committed to providing many services for which it currently lacks funds, this seems both unimaginative and unrealistic.
Still, Declining by Degrees is worth watching for its discussion of higher education's many problems.
DVD Review: A very telling account, albeit not as detailed
Summary: 4 Stars
This DVD feature serves to shed light on the present state of higher education in American institutions, public and private (illuminating the inchoate resurgence of class stratification inherent therein) but even this long running documentary cannot explore all facets of this issue in enough detail to give the viewer a firm grasp of the urgency of the situation.
I am all too aware of the true nature of what an "education" these days entail: submission (supplant family values and traditions with a surrogate "family" of labor), consumerism (a perpetual quest to seek gratification and emotional fulfillment in material goods and products that requires a mortgaging of one's future), and obedience (foregoing entrepreneurial efforts to remain loyal to uncaring, faceless entities).
The education industry has become a commercial commodity to be bought, sold, and traded like frozen orange juice. Students are stripped of their individuality, their maturity stunted, and programmed to accept a life of never ending debt by toiling away for hours on end in a cube farm for 35-40 years. It is a means to an end (get a degree, get a job), an outcome-based model of practical utility, not the supplement to self discovery it once extolled.
An engineer by trade, my discipline is greatly affected by this errant apathy in the present generations for substance and learning. No one reads a book anymore; using proper grammar and spelling may as well have come from Jupiter. Approx. 85% of conversation revolves around whatever was shown on television last night. I have colleagues with incomes approaching six figures that can not tell me what year the Civil War started, nevertheless who was the US president at the time!! This is indeed a sad indictment of our educational system. For those that still deny this, they have not spent much time on internet message boards.
DVD Review: Declining by Degrees
Summary: 5 Stars
Extremely enlightening for faculty, students, and parents! A different view of what a degree means today and perhaps what it does not mean. It gave me insight as a soon-to-be faculty member about how students may think about their courses and as a parent of a college student regarding what to look for in a university and finding the right match of college to student for a better education. It is a very eye opening look at college life and how students view the college experience. Bold face-to-face interviews with students and faculty gave me ideas about how to engage students in the classroom and hopefully encourage learning. DVD Review: Higher Education has NOT Declined in Quality
Summary: 1 Stars
BACKGROUND INFORMATION: Several people in my family, including me, have college degrees. I received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2005 from an average state university. In addition, I was awarded an associate's degree in 2002 from a school that everyone says is the easiest junior college. Also, my father received his bachelor's degree in political science from UCLA around the year 1966. UCLA did not have the level of prestige that it has today, but it was still a well respected university. Likewise, my mother completed her first year of college at UCLA and then transferred to Boston University to complete the rest of her bachelor's degree. She received her degree in sociology around the year 1968.
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In this video, John Merrow claims that higher education in America has declined in standards and quality over the past 25 years. However, based on what my parents have told me, I seriously doubt it. After they described their experiences, I have learned that the quality of higher education today is just as good if not better than it was 40 years ago.
First, higher education critics complain that the college students today receive less work compared to forty years ago, but my father telling me about his college years has made me believe otherwise. Today one can usually get by without doing any of the assigned readings, because usually the exams are mainly based on the class lectures. However, this was also true when my father went to UCLA. Furthermore, I had about the same amount of reading that he had even at the junior college. We both had about 30 pages of reading per week in each course.
Not only have I not received any less work than my parents, they told me that throughout my college career, I actually received more work than they did. At the junior college alone, I was given more writing assignments than they were. While I attended this junior college, I had a term paper in almost every class (excluding math courses) even though my father had a total of only about 3 papers throughout his entire time as an undergraduate. This is despite everyone saying that this school is easier than all the other junior colleges. In addition, at the four year university, I was required to do a major research project at the end of my senior year (called the senior thesis). I was supposed to write a 20 - 30 page paper on my research for this project. My father never had to do any project like that.
In addition to describing their college education, my father has concluded based on his experience teaching law school for the past 30 years that today's college graduates are just as educated as they were yesterday. During that period, he taught only first year students, all of whom had bachelor's degrees, and he has not noticed any change in the quality of his students over the years. This is despite the fact that college is supposed to prepare one for law school by teaching one how to think. For example, an undergraduate education is supposed to develop ones own critical thinking skills, analytical skills, etc. These skills are needed to succeed in law school. Given this and that he taught only first year students, if undergraduate education has really declined, my father would have noticed it. He has not.
Overall, this video does not seem to match up to reality. I have learned by talking to my mother and father that the quality of higher education in America today is at least as good as it was yesterday. Therefore, I know that the entire premise of this video is false. Don't waste your money buying it.
Description of Declining by Degrees: Higher Education at Risk
In this revealing documentary, veteran correspondent John Merrow takes you behind the ivy-covered walls of our colleges and universities to see if they are delivering on their promise.General DVDs
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