Educação universitária em crise

Taking Knowledge Out of College
... According to a controversial recent study, led by the sociologists Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa and summarized in their book "Academically Adrift," nearly half of all undergraduates fail to demonstrate significant improvements in critical thinking or writing skills during their first two years in college. Even more dismal, particular kinds of knowledge are largely forgotten shortly after the final exam.
Drs. Arum and Roksa say that college has become a leisure activity, with the typical undergraduate spending 40 hours a week socializing and 13 hours studying. In many large lecture halls, attendance rarely exceeds 55%.
Why, then, do we pay the exorbitant tuition? If nothing is learned, why are students and parents so desperate to get into the best schools? Bryan Caplan, an economist at George Mason University and author of the forthcoming book "The Case Against Education," argues that colleges are more about certifying their students than actually teaching them useful skills. Their primary function is to provide "signals" of intelligence and competency, which is why they put students through a variety of mostly arbitrary and useless academic hoops. "Good students tend to be smart, hardworking and conformist—three crucial traits for almost any job," writes Dr. Caplan. "When a student excels in school, then, employers correctly infer that he's likely to be a good worker."
This suggests that the value of a college education has little to do with learning. Instead, graduates' higher salaries are a testament to the sorting mechanisms of college during the application process and in the classroom.
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