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I speak with both academic scientists and cultural theorists on this issue often. I think there's elements of truth about this but it's not the whole picture.

I speak with both academic scientists and cultural theorists on this issue often. I think there's elements of truth about this but it's not the whole picture. students are indeed more demanding because they're consumers now they are paying for a product and getting into decades long debt for something so we should expect that they want a) value for money and b) not be flunked. The universities that most newspaper readers understand run according to an older system and not this consumer one. Secondly there is a radical tendancy which challenges the very nature of academia itself. What students should do is simply "drop out". Dropping out as a morally good thing is worse than anything it appears to me in the US. In Europe it's more common but Americans have an ingrained culture of hard work (or study) as being morally good (protestant work ethic). Actually starting a utopian progressive society should be the recommendation of those who have major criticisms of academia, but it doesn't happen. So I think that it's a small amount and a minority of students that are extreme. And they are not so extreme they would drop out because they dont! They are progressive and want to work in companies and change the world in small "woke" ways to make it more comfortable in an actually narrow selfish way and not a wider more fundamental radical way. So the reactions from the organisation is more visible because they are serving their consumers. If the customer is always right and the customer says that something is problematic and should be changed then they will be obeyed. In summary the idea that there's some deep cultural war occuring on the front line in the campus is wrong. most students want what they pay for. Universities are changing to meet the demands of a small number of students. Having a degree is just about better than not. The investment, the cost of the product is just about worth it.

mnm1 7y ago
What are students actually paying for though? A diploma? Or an actual education. It sounds like you're making the case for the former. In that case, why even have grades or work? Why not just give everyone a diploma after four years no matter if they did the work well or if they got drunk for four years and never stepped foot in the classroom? If the customer is always right, then this is what should happen. I'd argue that the customer is not always right. That in the case of education, they are paying for an education and not a diploma. By definition, they cannot always be right because education implies learning and learning implies failure and being wrong. After all, if you're never wrong, you're not learning. You already knew everything. That is hypothetical of course and not a real situation. Students are paying for an education and therefore they must be challenged, tested, and worked. And none of those things are guaranteed. They are all difficult. And none of those actions are safe. So the idea that they should be in some sort of safe space is antithetical to learning. If the universities bow down to the students and replace education with safe spaces of non learning, they are just a diploma mill now. The students learn nothing and the diplomas are meaningless. Instead, universities need to stand behind for the product they offer. They should not bow down to the stupid demands of students who are anti learning and want safe spaces and meaningless diplomas without learning. They should continue to educate and kick out such students that have no interest in learning. They should promote education at any cost. Otherwise they become institutions of meaningless association, places where students go to get drunk, party, and hang out. In other words, just like most high schools. This anti intellectual idiocy needs to be resisted and one way to do so is to have reasonable costs, ideally free. That needs to be regulated and subsidized by the government, but in the meantime universities themselves have plenty of options for lowering costs if the will is there. Otherwise, why don't these students just apply for fake diplomas from the internet? The end result is the same.

mnm1 7y ago

What are students actually paying for though? A diploma? Or an actual education. It sounds like you're making the case for the former. In that case, why even have grades or work? Why not just give everyone a diploma after four years no matter if they did the work well or if they got drunk for four years and never stepped foot in the classroom? If the customer is always right, then this is what should happen. I'd argue that the customer is not always right. That in the case of education, they are paying for an education and not a diploma. By definition, they cannot always be right because education implies learning and learning implies failure and being wrong. After all, if you're never wrong, you're not learning. You already knew everything. That is hypothetical of course and not a real situation. Students are paying for an education and therefore they must be challenged, tested, and worked. And none of those things are guaranteed. They are all difficult. And none of those actions are safe. So the idea that they should be in some sort of safe space is antithetical to learning. If the universities bow down to the students and replace education with safe spaces of non learning, they are just a diploma mill now. The students learn nothing and the diplomas are meaningless. Instead, universities need to stand behind for the product they offer. They should not bow down to the stupid demands of students who are anti learning and want safe spaces and meaningless diplomas without learning. They should continue to educate and kick out such students that have no interest in learning. They should promote education at any cost. Otherwise they become institutions of meaningless association, places where students go to get drunk, party, and hang out. In other words, just like most high schools. This anti intellectual idiocy needs to be resisted and one way to do so is to have reasonable costs, ideally free. That needs to be regulated and subsidized by the government, but in the meantime universities themselves have plenty of options for lowering costs if the will is there. Otherwise, why don't these students just apply for fake diplomas from the internet? The end result is the same.