There could be different opinions regarding the value of
higher education between students and academic staff. It is important to know
the perceptions of main stakeholders of HE in order to improve the education
system. Personally, the purpose of HE is not only preparing students for career,
but also to develop personal skills.
According to the empirical study of Rothman (2010),
after asking of students about the value of higher education, faculty and
administration, we can observe some kinds of disagreement. The majority of
students highlight the most crucial reason of attending colleges – career
prospective. In contrast, faculty and administration highlight the importance
of gaining the general education for students. However, students do not deny
the “general education” mission of university.
Interestingly, Johnson and Elton (2005) conduct the
empirical comparative study between the UK and German students about the value
of their higher education. There are significant differences of graduates’
answers in two countries. The majority of the UK students said that higher
education helped them develop personal skills such as self-confidence,
intellectual development and social development. In contrast, German graduates
points out the ‘formation of professionals’, acquisition of basic knowledge and
research development as the most important values. The authors connect the
above mentioned answers with strong higher education traditions in countries.
For example, it means that in Germany the Humboltdian notions are still valid.
To sum up, the career goals are one of the reasons of
universities’ importance for students. However, for me, universities should
contribute people to develop personal skills as critical thinking and
creativity. Undoubtedly, the historical background of HE strongly influences on
the directions of HE strategies.
References
Johnston, B., & Elton, L. (2005). German and UK higher education and graduate employment: the interface between systemic tradition and graduate views. Comparative education, 41(3), 351-373.
Rothman, S. (2010). Visions of the university. In Still divided academy: How competing visions of power, politics, and diversity complicate the mission of higher education (pp. 15-39).
Dear Sholpan,
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot, it is very interesting topic.
As for me, I would agree with you. Of course during education we acquire some professional but higher education is mostly about personal skills. Sometimes I think is that good or bad?! Because fresh graduate should be competent and have to come ready to the market as professionals In this sense, many top managers and experienced employees complain that new generation of specialists come to the filed as a "white paper", so they have to teach everything from the beginning. It is well known practice. May it is somehow soviet legacy, may be it is our perception about young graduates, may be we just do not require them to be knowldegable about their degree or may be its big discrepancy between education and market, which means higher education institutions' doesn't prepare specialist that current market needs? Good topic for one more thesis. You should think about that! ;)
I think that research development is one of the crucial values of German students due to the fact that they established first research university in Europe and all students from the beginning of their study understand what for they came to the university. Regarding Kazakhstani situation, from my perspective, students are pursuing their Bachelor or Master’s degrees mostly for career prospective and getting some knowledge, unfortunately, not for developing skills. This happens because the whole society and universities themselves do not value higher education, everyone can easily get any degree if he has enough financial resources. Moreover, the professors in our local universities do not know how to develop particular skills in students, just giving knowledge is not enough to make students competent on the labor market. All this may lead to a number of big issues not only in educational sector but also in political and economic.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Sholpan for this interesting blog! All you have written above proves the following: higher education institution is a multifaceted and multilateral organization having so many tasks, purposes and values in society. All of us know that they serve to the needs of the society and its mission is to transfer and provide knowledge to the students. Nowadays, "knowledge" becomes the term comprising not only level of professional knowledge but also a lot of skills, abilities and competencies. Moreover, as researchers underlined the perception of students regarding values of higher education may be influenced by cultural peculiarities. Also, students going to universities are different individuals with different goals. For me, the research findings that there are different answers is the sign of multidimensional nature of the higher education institutions.
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