"Dr. Ali Houshmand doesn’t understand why all college degrees need to take four years to achieve. Why the school year is still based on a fall-spring calendar that was established more than two centuries ago. Why internships aren’t a bigger part of every student’s education. Why students too often are taught abstract ideas they can’t apply rather than practical concepts that lead to jobs. And why the United States, despite having the finest colleges and universities in the world, is not producing enough of the graduates it needs for its workforce and its future.
There’s a lot the Rowan University president wants to do to shake up higher education.
And it all starts with business."
Interesting article, but he fails to go deep enough into his questions and how he wants to change things.
I went to an information session at Rowan recently and was much more impressed than I expected. The whole vibe was student-focused, not in a fluffy way but truly geared toward creative ways to make a college education accessible to real students who are willing to work. Rowan U is staying close to the vision of Henry Rowan to give new opportunity to the people of the local community. It’s really amazing.
Personally, I don’t agree with much of his ideas on a grand scale, hence why it would have been nice to have the details. If you want an education just for a specific job, there are schools for that. It actually would be nice if more occupations (plumber, electrician, etc) had a more broad education than just the technical. Our lives are not just about our work knowledge. I also don’t like the idea of colleges being the training ground for specific jobs. If anything, many majors have become too specific. That is what on the job training is for. Don’t pass the buck from the business to the school.
He is doing a great job with the entire Rowan Name.He worked under the now deceased President at Drexel in Philly and he has since incorporated many ideas and a very similar business model that occurred there. Med Schools, importance of internships which has/will improve the name recognition of Rowan.
Students who would not have been interested in Rowan now visit.
@MomOf3DDs: “If anything, many majors have become too specific. That is what on the job training is for. Don’t pass the buck from the business to the school.”
@PurpleTitan I am not following you. That is how it has always been. You don’t graduate with the knowledge of how to work X job at Company A. You graduate with the knowledge and skills to learn how to do it. Heck, even doctors have to do a residency program to learn how to apply what they learned in medical school.
@MomOf3DDs: Depends on the job and certainly, someone can come in more or less prepared for a job. So why would companies train if they have to do less of that?
Universities offer many kinds of majors, many of which are purely theoretical. Exactly how do you make philosophy “practical”? Or do you just declare the entire major isn’t practical… so you axe it?
@katliamom: Analytic philosophy teaches some very useful skills, such as critical thinking, strong logic ability, and strong reading and writing skills.
There are actually quite a few less useful majors out there.
@MomOf3DDs I completely agree with you. Although I am impressed with the hands on aspect of Rowan’s engineering program, overall I still feel that a college education needs to be about learning and learning to think. Do you really want to spend all of that money on a college education to be locked into a particular job? I personally prefer a little more versatility. As a mechanical engineer, which is so broad in scope, how can I learn job skills for every potential job that degree should be good for? I should be learning principles and theory and how to apply them. I am capable of performing many jobs if properly trained by my employer.
^I’ll take a stab. If your major doesn’t require at least one course in probability or statistics, and that’s not already covered in gen ed requirements, then it’s not preparing you for the modern, data driven world.
@katliamom: Of course everyone says they teach critical thinking skills, but some majors (and schools) certainty hone that more than others. I agree with @roethlisburger that understanding probability and stats (including Bayesian probability) is as important as being able to read deeply and write well (or more important) and some majors develop that more than others.
Here’s what Charlie Munger had to say about Bayesian probability:
“If you don’t get this elementary, but mildly unnatural, mathematics of elementary probability into your repertoire, then you go through a long life like a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest. You’re giving a huge advantage to everybody else.”