The education market is going more commercial than ever; schools see the market of the higher education degree as a business, with the price gap between state schools and private schools closing. This is recognized not just in the United States, but all over the world, British author Ian Angus reports.
The following are ten facts about the commercialization of education; how they benefit you, the online learner, and how they also hurt your academic future.
The Benefits of Commercialized Higher Education Degrees
1: Private schools are within a reasonable price range. Most online higher education degree options are available through private schools. The commercialization of education means that state schools step up their pricing, bridging the gap between them and these private school options. Thanks to the commercialization of education, it is actually considered a financially sound choice to attend either a private or public university.
2: Students are treated with more respect. At a commercialized school, the student is the customer; that is why private schools still thrived back when they were thrice or more the price of state schools. The most horrific student experiences come from a university’s sense of entitlement, that they owe nothing to the student that helps fund them.
3: Students receive a better product, or education. Commercialized education means that schools are competing more than ever for whole can provide quality education at a reasonable price. Like any other market, this healthy competition is a benefit to the buyer, or in this case, the student.
4: Students of different ages and backgrounds will study together. The enmeshing of private schools, public schools, and the costs associated with each means that students of all walks of life will start attending both forms of education. Higher education degree options that once were mostly available to male, upper class white American citizens will become more available to other students; and higher education degrees that once were only pursued by adult learners will be pursued by all ages.
5: Students will have more say over the educational system. Since commercialized education means that students are paying more for education than the government, the direction of education will lie more in the hands of students and teachers and less in the hands of government officials only interested in a process.
The Drawbacks of Commercialized Higher Education Degrees
6: The traditional educational subjects are downgraded in the name of occupationally-sound degree options. In commercialized learning, higher education degrees focus more on the job role they fulfill and less on the traditional academics, such as sciences and liberal arts. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing for you, the online learner, if you’re going to school to acquire a degree for a new job opportunity.
7: The pursuit of knowledge is not considered as much of a community source. When state schools become more expensive and compete with for-profit schools, this means that knowledge–pursued and created–isn’t available to the lower classes. Student loans and grants help fix this problem, however.
8: Schools are there to make money. As education becomes commercial, there’s no denying the purpose of the higher education degree: for schools to make money. For-profit schools are based on financial gain and, while this grants benefits to the student such as customer respect, it also means that students will not be attending universities that exist solely for academia.
9: Education is simply more expensive. There’s no avoiding the fact education is more expensive than it used to be a decade ago. Private colleges seem more affordable — after all, they’re not much different from the price tag of state universities these days — but the education industry is spiking its costs across the board as commercialism comes into the picture.
10: Education is heading in an unknown direction. Since the commercialization is relatively knew, it makes predicting the direction of education less predictable.
What are your thoughts about the commercialization of higher education degree choices?
performance as well. Make sure your space works for you..not against you!
