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“You have two people of the same caliber, one has a degree from a real college, one has a degree from a computer, I’m going to favor the one from the live college,” Rand said. “It’s more verifiable, more credible.”

Bloomberg has a long article about the rip-off of online for-profit colleges directed at the military and our tax dollars. Makes for very sad reading.

Margaret Soltan, December 15, 2009 5:23AM
Posted in: CLICK-THRU U.

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8 Responses to ““You have two people of the same caliber, one has a degree from a real college, one has a degree from a computer, I’m going to favor the one from the live college,” Rand said. “It’s more verifiable, more credible.””

  1. Quote of the Day – Degree Mill Edition Says:

    […] Story via Margaret Soltan. […]

  2. david foster Says:

    Part of the problem here is organizations that idiotically require a *degree* in order to get hired, promoted, or paid more, without any concern as to what getting the degree actually involves, or whether it is really relevant to the job and seriously differentiates from candidates who don’t have the degree. K-12 education is the biggest offender here, with automatic pay increases often coming with an advanced degree (even one in squisy-soft "education") despite any evidence that such degrees are really of any value…but business, and apparently also the military, are by no means totally innocent.

    Haven’t seen many stories about people getting fake degrees or oversimplified on-line degrees in genuinely high-content subjects like "theromodynamics of steam turbines" or even "German poets of the late Middle Ages"…it generally seems to be some degree whose purpose for existing is that piece of paper itself.

  3. JND Says:

    Assholes ripping off the government and the soldier: a dishonorable tradition since 1776.

  4. RJO Says:

    > Part of the problem here is organizations that idiotically require a *degree* in order to get hired, promoted, or paid more…

    Don’t forget law enforcement as one of the principal sectors involved in this kind of enterprise. There’s many a fourth-tier college staying afloat by offering criminal justice degrees that are required for promotion in various police departments.

    >… or oversimplified on-line degrees in genuinely high-content subjects… "German poets of the late Middle Ages"

    Ironically, and partly to be contrarian, I think a serious Great Books degree program is the sort of thing that might be successful online. It would be text-heavy, with lots of reading and writing, and online discussion. To be good it would have to have the same kind of student-faculty ratio you’d find in an on-campus program, so it couldn’t be a cheap thing, nor a mass market thing. If David wants to put up the money I’ll develop it. 😉

  5. Mr Punch Says:

    David is perfectly right about credentialism — and there are two side effects that are damaging to higher education. One is the devaluation of liberal arts degrees, because a "relevant" schlock degree can often win out. The other, clearer problem is that institutions that specialize in credentials intended to bring automatic promotion are not subject to appropriate market discipline. The main reason schools of education are so bad is that nobody much cares about the quality of their highest degrees (MEd, EdD degrees for administrators).

  6. david foster Says:

    RJO…I think an online Great Books program could work well if done properly..however, I wonder if there would actually be a significant market for it. I’m guessing most of the people interested in that kind of reading these days are self-confident & quirky enough to want to choose their own reading materials, whereas in the original GB days, people were looking for someone to to tell them what was culturally acceptable.

    In his memoirs, Tom Watson Jr of IBM tells an interesting story about his friend Al Williams, who rose from a very rough background to become President of IBM. Williams explained that his self-improvement program had consisted of three elements: (1)buy clothes at Brooks Brothers, (2)read the classics, (3)listen to classical music every evening. (This was in the 1930s & 1940s, IIRC)

    It’s interesting & probably depressing to speculate about what a parallel self-improvement program would look like today…

  7. Tom Says:

    David, I don’t know exactly what it would look like, but it would probably involve reading People magazine and watching reality television…

  8. Education Tay Says:

    Although two degrees have the same level of study and examined at the same level employers and a lot of university admission services distinguished between study methods. Learning through interaction could be more beneficial and this is especially perceived by employers. I have experience if this from as a lecturer and at management level in commercial industry.

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