Article Summary 14: University

Taylor, Mark C. "End the University As We Know It" New York Times 26 April 2009. Web. 28 Feb. 2010.

Universities are becoming out of date for the times we live in. The jobs that students are being prepared for will most likely not exist once they graduate, or won’t be attainable. The way that Universities are set up does not allow for a more general education, and needs to be reevaluated. The author proposes that the separation of all the departments is harmful to the way students learn, and that the tradition dissertation does nothing to prepare a student for the real world. A six step solution is proposed to fix the problem that is created by the distance between the safety of school, and the reality that students are thrown into once they graduate.

The author also believes that there are too many subcategories for most topics. Writing a paper about the tiniest notation is not going to do a student any good. The way that the system is set up professors are creating a copy of their own ideas, but feel no need to leave the field when the younger generation comes along. Tenure is a guarantee that a professor will no longer need to work as hard, and that their position will be held for a very long time, keeping back students from getting jobs when they graduate.