Quote:
Originally Posted by MonctonRad
I hope Canada does not go down that American rabbit hole.
In the US, it matters less what your degree is in than where you got it. If you have a Harvard or Yale degree, well, then your way in life is guaranteed!! Of course, this makes the whole admissions process way too competitive and open to nepotism and corruption. If you are the child of a generous donor, or a valued alumnus, this gives you a lot of extra brownie points in the admissions process. Less scrupulous parents will fork over hundreds of thousands of dollars to "admissions coaches" who of course know whose palms to grease. The whole process stinks (although to be fair, these universities also have generous scholarship programs for truly gifted but financially compromised students).
I have always appreciated how Canadian universities have flattened the "prestige curve", and that decent educations can be had in numerous universities across the country regardless of location. I think this is eminently more fair. I went to undergrad and medical school in the Maritimes and do not feel that my education was particularly compromised by never leaving the colonies. It would be sad if only the top six or seven universities in the country were felt to be worthy...........  |
A professional designation will always have cachet. They are pickier about entrance requirements - you actually need to expend effort to get in and complete those programs. People always need skilled people. It's going to be the mundane things that will suffer most. "BA's and mediocre BSc's for all!" from second-tier universities only works if the entrance standards are higher than "Anybody with a pulse".
You can firesale credibility for awhile. Think of it as printing money. As long as everyone believes in it, you can get away with it. Once people catch on that the degree one issues isn't worth the paper it's written on, the game is up. Second-tier universities are in a jam. They got caught up in the exuberance of "Degree = smart people" and "Everybody should get a degree!". To keep the music going, they let standards slide.
Oops, people figured out that a degree wasn't a instant winning lottery ticket to a middle-class job. The world stopped giving a shit about credentials if they had no value - employers want somebody with a skill set. Or somebody without an inflated sense of their worth.
I get the distinct sense that young people are figuring this out before they plunk down big cash and time - the younger employees I deal with seem more realistic in that sense. They didn't do the undergrad thing in general, because the payoff wasn't there especially from the second-tier universities.
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