Are Undergrad BSchool Degrees Worth Anything Anymore?

Interesting article in todays NYT online.

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"Diluted Degrees":

David Glenn’s article “The Default Major: Skating Through B School” raises a set of critical questions about the quality of undergraduate education in one of the fastest growing fields of study in U.S. higher education. Glenn’s reporting on the lack of rigor in many of these programs extends the findings that Josipa Roksa and I have identified in "Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses."

Business students study less, and it shows on measures of critical thinking and writing ability.
We found that students concentrating in business related coursework were the least likely to report spending time studying and preparing for class. If one considers simply hours spent studying alone, undergraduates concentrating in business coursework invest less than one hour a day in such pursuits. Given such modest investments in academic activities, it is not surprising that business students show the lowest gains on measures of critical thinking, complex reasoning and written communication. The implication of these troubling patterns, however, goes well beyond these particular types of programs.

An in-depth examination of the academic character of business majors instead serves to highlight a broader set of problems found in contemporary higher education. As Glenn points out in his article, undergraduate business majors have experienced tremendous growth in recent decades (increasing from 14 percent in 1970 to 21 percent today). This growth has paralleled a more widespread cultural shift in our shared understandings of the meaning of undergraduate education.

Today students often define college either in social terms or simply as a means to obtain a credential that can be translated for labor market success. Colleges and universities have facilitated these collective understandings by defining undergraduates largely as consumers or clients whose needs should be institutionally addressed and satisfied. Arguably, for both better and worse, undergraduate business majors have exemplified these changes in the organizational culture of higher education. It is essential to recognize, however, that these trends are much deeper than just business programs: they extend broadly throughout U.S. contemporary colleges and universities.

In recent decades, students have been able successfully to exchange their college credentials, and in particular their business degrees for early career employment success. While there are a particular set of reasons for this historical phenomenon, the question of the moment is: will such economic returns persist? The jury is out on this, as U.S. businesses faced with increased global competition turn to outsourcing not just manufacturing, but also white collar employment.

A study of business majors a year out of college found that a staggering 45 percent of them live back at home or with relatives.
When Josipa Roksa and I surveyed the Academically Adrift cohort last spring, a year after their graduation, we found that while business majors indeed continued to have slightly better initial job prospects than other graduates, large numbers of them were struggling to make successful transitions. When considering business majors a year out of college who were no longer enrolled in classes, we found 9 percent unemployed, 28 percent without full-time employment and a staggering 45 percent living back at home with their parents or other relatives.

This current reality might lead the next generation of students, educators and policy makers to reconsider whether college success can be defined simply in terms of degree attainment or alternatively if the quality and the character of learning outcomes should also be assessed. To develop higher order skills, as well as attitudes and dispositions, that will serve future college graduates as they move from job to job and across particular occupations throughout their life course, serious academic engagement is necessary.

In the absence of institutions' insistence and students' willingness to make such investments in academic activities, one would expect employers coming increasingly to question college graduates’ human capital and productive capacity.

In the absence of changes in the character of U.S. higher education, one would expect many more future college graduates to be living back at home with their parents.

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It's all been talked about before but this is a pretty scathing review (Yes, it is the NYT but it's all worth considering as there seems to be a trend going on). One comment from a undergrad bschool mother struck me:

"My son received a business degree from a "highly rated" university program and graduated with honors. My husband and I were appalled by the non-education he received. He didn't read great books, he didn't write anything, and he still has trouble managing his own finances, which include student loan debts. He seems incapable of critical thinking about any subject. Our other children, who went to much less vaunted colleges, learned far more while they were there. His college experience was a colossal waste of his money, our money and the taxpayer's money. We'd have been better off to give him the money we spent on college for a down payment on a house. Even a 4-year cross-country road trip would most certainly have resulted in more actual learning."

Pretty serious. Would be interesting to hear WSOs thoughts...