Re: <nettime> de/fund/ed digest [rosler, hopkins]

[Kelley <securitylists@inkworkswell.com>]

At 08:54 AM 3/9/2005, coco fusco wrote:

>Another key way that the drive to raise money has
>changed higher education is through the proliferation
>of MA degrees as cash cows. Faculty are encouraged to
>think of ways to invent quick and easy degree programs
>that wayward and wealthy adults will pay for. We are
>told by administrators to save our doctoral programs
>for the creme de la creme, and use MA programs to fill
>the coffers.
>
>I highly recommend Lawrence Soley's book, LEASING THE
>IVORY TOWER: THE CORPORATE TAKEOVER OF ACADEMIA, for
>more information on this trend.

Thanks for the recommendation.

I've noticed the M.A. cash cow trend, too. It's short-term thinking and 
will bite everyone in the behind. It's a form of credential inflation. By 
stuffing the job market with M.A.'s, the value of obtaining an M.A. will 
decrease, and they'll have to cannibalize the Ph.D. programs -- which some 
universities are *already* doing, particularly in the field of Education.

What's next, will the "Ten Year Plan" become a legitimate degree path for 
the creme de la creme? In order to get a *valuable* Ph.D., they'll have to 
spend at least 10 years in graduate school? The universities don't like 
that, either, since they crunch numbers on the basis of how quickly those 
degrees are completed.

Hilarity on ice,


Kelley


http://www.inkworkswell.com

"Be a scribe! Your body will be sleek, your hand
will be soft. You are  one who sits grandly in your
house; your servants answer speedily; beer is poured
copiously; all who see you rejoice in good cheer.
Happy is  the heart of him who writes; he is young
each day."

                  --Ptahhotep, Vizier to Isesi,
                    Fifth Egyptian Dynasty, 2300 BC                  



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