Research Blog # 1: Different Topic
A topic I would like to explore would be to compare the college
standards of the United Kingdom. I
am curious to see if one system is better than the other in terms of happiness,
relationships between students and teachers, pressures to succeed, and overall preparedness for their
future careers.
If you are going to change topics, this would be the time to do so. But, though there does seem to be some literature on this topic, I don't think the comparison of UK and US colleges would yield the most interesting results since both have been transformed by privatization in very similar ways. The only difference might be that the US schools have been able to raise prices faster and, driven by more intensive competition, have done more to improve services to students in order to compete for diminishing enrollments. I would predict that US schools would be perceived as better by students, even though UK schools have probably maintained higher academic standards. UK schools have also probably maintained more liberal arts programs while US schools have made huge changes that have expanded professional programs and STEM offerings to meet demand. And probably students are more satisfied with the push toward more practical degree programs, since that fits with their needs under privatization.
ReplyDeleteAs I discuss this, I realize that while the forces of change are similar (especially with the rise of neoliberalism and privatization in both countries), the responses have probably been rather different, so the comparison might be more interesting than I at first thought.
However, that said, I think a much more obvious contrast would be between a country that has not embraced neoliberalism and privatization and countries like the US and UK that have. I think that would yield much more obvious contrasts. Countries like Germany, Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Denmark, where college is still free (along with health care and other things), have probably seen much different student experiences than those of students in the US. Though there are probably marginal differences of student perception between the US and UK, based on consumer reports, the real differences are much less than the differences between higher education systems that have no privatized and those that have. And consumer analysis alone would not be sufficient really to explain those differences, as students have very limited knowledge in how to judge higher education quality vs. their own experiences of higher education (which might be based on how much fun they have had at parties).
Think about it. You can certainly pursue this topic. But you need to look at the bigger picture in analyzing the perceived differences between the US and UK, since the real differences are many fewer than the differences between the US and countries that have not experienced privatization. And, eventually, the UK will probably become just like the US, they are just slower to embrace the marketing and consumer-focused philosophy that privatization requires.