Higher education is more about social signaling than actually providing education (STEM subjects being a partial exception). That's a very limited perspective.

Higher education is more about social signaling than actually providing education (STEM subjects being a partial exception). That's a very limited perspective. I enjoy reading history books, many written by people who studied history and teach history at institutions of higher education. Are you saying that everyone is just going through the motions to send a social signal, except for STEM? Also you didn't address the question of for-profit vs private education. For-profit tends to be inferior because profit is the only mission; private institutions have a mix of goals, including solvency. BIA is by all accounts for-profit. The BIA schools are teaching numeracy and literacy Education at every level consists of showing someone how to act in the world. It's not just "this is what a number looks like, this is what a word looks like." I haven't been to a BIA school, but I've seen a lot of concerns that their method is to cheapen education by removing any human guidance, and divert money from the World Bank away from traditional education.