Controversies in Contemporary Higher Education

Introduction

Each month, thousands of students across the country continue to graduate from high school. In the wake of the transition from high school to college, the critical question asked is whether the students are ready for high education. College–readiness means that a high school graduate has the required mindset, skills, and knowledge that will enable them to engage in and complete the college courses. According to statistics conducted by the National Assessment of Education Progress, less than 40% of high school seniors are considered ready for college-level work. Poor decision-making and a lack of readiness can significantly impact the future of the student. Research indicates that by 2025, tertiary education will be needed for two-thirds of all the jobs in the United States (Mansell, 2013). It will also be the best way to attain economic security and social mobility. As college admissions become increasingly competitive, research shows that the pressure to lie, embellish, and even exaggerate has increased. Every day many seniors in high school are dealing with what degree they want to which university will offer the best benefit for them. There are many basic skills and understanding that these seniors lack. The learning skills they gained in high school are sharp, but they still get mislead in the ‘sales' pitches all the enrollment advisors present to students. They get the (hip) of that university will be the best they have, and that financial aid will cover all the tuition.

Background of the Issue

The particular decisions to join a postsecondary learning institution and the specific institution one wants to attend are two fundamental decisions that high school seniors must come up with in their pursuits to join college. These choices are as important as the information upon which the decisions are based on. In the last few years, the information guiding the students’ decision to pick colleges has come under intense criticism for its lack of clarity, accuracy, and honesty to guide the prospective students in making the right choices. In 1976, an amendment known as the “Student Consumer Information Provision” was created to ensure that the high school seniors received complete information regarding the college experiences (Mansell, 2013). Other than the inaccuracies and incompleteness in information seen by many higher education institutions, presentation issues that have bred confusion and a lack of understanding have also presented significant problems. Such recruitment guidelines have also had an impact on the career choices of the students. Studies have demonstrated that choosing a major field of study for the students can be a difficult decision for these students. Prospective college students are encouraged to assess a host of issues including the cost of the program, marketability of the course, and the salary expectations among others. Students must also evaluate the programs that will have the highest return-on-investment (ROI) for their tertiary education (Mansell, 2013). Therefore, colleges must remain cognizant of these crucial needs and react by giving the students the correct information they need to make the right choices for their education.

Understanding the Factors Influencing Student College Choice

Studies have shown that several factors are responsible for influencing college choices among high school seniors. Appreciating these motivations can help in understanding the widespread inaccuracies and dishonesty leveraged by the enrollment advisors. Research has shown that academic quality or reputation of the institution remains the most significant factor determining student choices to colleges and universities. In the United States, the most popular university in terms of the number of applications is Harvard University. A recent statistic has shown that Harvard has already received total 42,742 applications for the class of 2022 (Bergseth et al., 2014). For many years, the institution has held its reputation as one of the best institutions not only in the US but the entire world. The second factor to consider is the desired program of study. Research by the US Department of Education between 2009 and 2011 has shown that 74% of 11th ninth-graders felt that the desired program of study was a very important aspect to consider when choosing a college. Other important aspects that were considered include job placement and cost of attendance at 73% and 67% respectively (Bergseth et al., 2014).

Role of the Enrollment Advisors

Before assessing the role of the enrollment advisers, it remains critical to understand that their work closely depends on how well they remain mindful of the needs of the factors influencing the college choices among prospective students. Each university, college, and vocational school among others has the critical position of an enrollment advisor. They are regarded as the gateway to a student's admission to an institution of higher education. Most critically, they play an essential role in being a mouthpiece to the particular colleges and universities they represent (Lockwood, Hunt, Matlack, & Kelley, 2013).They give the prospective students information on the admission process including the graduation requirements, eligibility, availability of services, and financial assistance among others. They also guide and counsel the student on various aspects pertaining to courses and the opportunities that a particular program will give the student. Enrollment advisors can also be viewed as promoters of the colleges and universities. They enable the students to make the right decisions as regards the future educational engagements in the prospective learning institutions. 

Therefore, it remains critical to note that the role of the enrollment officer can be a make or break point for the high school senior wishing to fulfill their dreams in the institution of higher education. They need to leverage several interpersonal skills such as honesty, integrity, truthfulness, and empathy to the needs of their applicants. However, the commercialization of the higher education has led to unethical practices among the enrollment advisors who provide inaccurate information that misled the students who later become disappointed because the institution fails to live up to their dreams. Lockwood et al., (2013) asserted that ethical practice demands that admission should be founded on the truth and merit. Any deviation from these critical aspects leads to flawed recruitment that intends to benefit either the institution or the enrollment advisor unduly. Some of the elite universities such as Harvard provide keen consideration to the position of the enrolment counselors which has enabled it to leverage one of the strictest recruitment policies ever.

Lack of Information by the High School Seniors

The government has set forth certain rules and policies that prevent colleges from unnecessarily spying on prospective students in a bid to acquire the information regarding where they could be applying. For instance, the federal regulations have since prohibited higher learning institutions from peeking at the financial forms of students with the aim of seeing where else they could be applying. The colleges under the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) have since barred members from directly asking prospective students where they would wish to join (Bergseth et al., 2014). However, this does not mean that colleges are not in a position to acquire data belonging to the applicants. Colleges are in a perpetual strategy to get into the mind of the student. They take advantage of the lack of information on the part of the high school seniors to influence them. Studies have revealed that some schools go to the extent of measuring the number of times an applicant visits its website. Others use their enrollment counselors to send a message that target specific individuals. However unethical the practices might seem to be, the bottom line is that they take advantage of the lack of information and naivety demonstrated by the students. 

High school graduates today are bombarded with many advertisements and brochures to help them apply for a college education. This has further been bolstered by the fact that centralized Common Applications allows students to make up to 20 applications (Becker, 2017). The elite colleges and universities such as Harvard and Stanford University do not have to worry because they receive thousands of applications in a short time. However, the lesser-known schools have to go beyond their comfort zones in a bid to get the students to apply for a space in their institution. Without doing this, such institutions risk experiencing a low recruitment rate which will make them appear mediocre or undesirable. No one would want to go to a college where every other person rejects. It is in this regard that data mining among colleges has become a significant issue that the higher education sector has had to contend with. Such institutions have sophisticated software and huge databases which they use to track potentially loyal students. In some instances, they use customized messages in a bid to lure the students to join the institution.

However, questions have been raised as to the legality and ethical bearing of such practices. NCACAC outlines that it is acceptable for an institution to probe the interest levels of its applicants so long as they do not use unfair questions such as querying the students about other institutions (Becker, 2017). Therefore, although data mining is not regarded as illegal, it can come with ethical implications depending on how the particular school conducts it. Colleges implicated in data mining have however come in defense of the strategy. One of the most common arguments is that the institutions need to plan by predicting the number of students who will enroll. Although data mining can be a smart strategy, educationists believe that it is turning schools into business institutions. Such strategies have been used by business entities that primarily operate on online platforms like Amazon to understand their customer base and establish a rapport. Amazon uses the internet to collect information belonging to the customers such as geographical location, order history, and the amount of time spent on the company's pages. Similar tactics are now being used by colleges. However, they have received backlash for being excessively invasive.

Data mining tactics have been used to track students that are regarded not to be college ready. The enrollment advisors use the information sent by the students in their application to determine their level of readiness to join college. When addressing the need for readiness, some of the areas that are assessed include emotional readiness, psychological readiness, and maturity. In proving that many students in the US is not ready, recent research concluding that only 58% of students returned to the same college for the second year (Becker, 2017). The lack of maturity and psychological readiness can contribute to a failed college attempt because the child, including their parents, can receive wrong or inaccurate information regarding the institutions and the services they seek to get. There is also an increased concern that many students who successfully performed well in high school have difficulties maintaining similar standards in their new institutions. The reasons boil down to the lack of knowledge and information required to make informed judgments. Research has shown that the single most important reason to explain the wrong choices when selecting colleges is insufficient knowledge in the costs and benefits. Without accurate information, it is easy for prospective students to consume myths and rumors.

The government has engaged in many strategies to assist in reducing the gaps in knowledge that have frequently caused the students and their parents to make the wrong decision. During the Obama administration, a strategy known as the College Scorecard initiative came to place. The use of the College Scorecard was the first time ever students and parents had an opportunity to compare different colleges based on the student's economic performance. However, more needs to be done to ensure that students make the right decisions that not only meet their financial viability but also academic and tuition needs (Hugo, 2012).Such a move will prevent college dropouts and further strengthen the quality of education in the country. Levering knowledge must also target the parents who are an important stakeholder in the education of their child. Parents, as financiers of the education, will have problems settling tuition fees if their children do not make the right choices.

Problems Encountered By Students Due To Knowledge Deficit

Financial Aid

Studies have shown that one of the areas where prospective students lack understanding is on financial aids. Colleges are responsible for awarding a host of financial aid award letters which can be misleading and confusing in equal measure. Scholarships, grants, and loans are all combined under the topic “Financial Assistance” or “Award.” Some schools have also been implicated in suggesting loans that cannot be afforded by the respective families. Many controversial issues have been experienced by prospective students when it comes to financial aids. The enrollment advisers have largely been implicated in these tendencies. Out of the different colleges in the US, for-profit institutions have been implicated in this impasse more than any other group (Schade, 2014).Some of the areas where the students have been misled include the cost of the program, duration and quality, and the average salary of graduates among others. The recruiters have also gone to the extent of encouraging the applicants to engage in fraud. Here, fraud can mean allowing the students to lie on matters relating to the financial viability which eventually works in the long-term favor of the colleges and universities. Other than the fraud, there is a general like of ambiguity shown by many colleges when giving information about the financial aid.

Normally, colleges ask the students to provide forms to qualify for a given financial aid provided by the institution. However, universities and colleges, in most circumstances, have failed to clarify the prerequisites for a particular type of aid. The Congress, in 1992, was aware of such behaviors by learning institutions and decided to ban it (Deming, Goldin, & Katz, 2013). It is therefore against the law for institutions to provide incomplete or misleading information to prospective students. It remains critical to note that prospective students, and some of their parents, are unaware of how some of the financial aids work. As such, they are entitled to receiving correct, clear, accurate, and complete information regarding the financial aids. In some instances, colleges have been accused of sending letters to prospective students that significantly underestimate the cost they are going to incur. Some have also been implicated in overstating the generosity of the grants, while others misrepresent figures for their benefit (Deming et al., 2013). However, difficult questions have been asked as to why colleges would arrive at a decision of sending misconstrued financial aid information to their prospective students. The answer stems from the fact that many colleges especially the low and middle levels are now hell-bent on turning the institutions into businesses.

Deming et al. (2013) noted that studies have shown that this is now a marketing tool that aids in the process of recruitment. It has therefore lost the previous counseling value that it had on the students. The goal of these colleges and university is to make the institution appear more affordable than it actually is. They accomplish this unethical goal by ensuring that the difference between the loans and the grants remain as obscure as possible. Therefore, it would be true to complete that many colleges are driven by their self-interests rather than that of the students when misrepresenting the information. The solution here remains the standardization of the financial award letters to protect the interests of both the students and their families. Although there is a lack of mandatory laws compelling colleges to fashion the financial aids in a particular way, the Department of Education must liaise with the college boards to enhance ethical conduct. 

Education

The miscommunication at the time of admission can also result in problems affecting the educational goals of the students. Many of the students joining college had performed well in high school, but after arriving in college, they do not maintain similar standards. Students have primarily faced these problems in for-profit organizations. Schade, (2014) asserted that advertisements and promotional activities had presented these learning institutions as places for leveraging professional careers. However, this has not been the case consideration some of the cases that have been assessed especially in the US. It calls for carefulness and sobriety on the part of parents who aspire to ensure that their children enjoy the fruits of the postsecondary education. Two trends have been witnessed in the for-profit institutions that have detrimental effects on the education of a child. First, they overemphasize on professional skills and training rather than the generalized education required at the universities. They open up education to students from low socioeconomic backgrounds that have missed opportunities in other deserving areas. 

The lack of proper mentorship prior to joining the colleges has also been an area of challenge to the prospective students. Some dishonest enrollment advisors have ditched their mentorship role and become marketers, who have instead peddled lies that affected the academic lives of many students. Miscommunication and misrepresentation of facts have meant that these students have engaged in courses that might not have necessarily propelled their career ambitions (Schade, 2014). Once they realize this, some decide to drop while others lose hope and underperform in their studies. Therefore, more effort should be placed on ensuring that these students choose the institutions and courses that best match their ambitions.

Conclusion

Every day many seniors in high school are dealing with what degree they want to which university will offer the best benefit for them. There are many basic skills and understanding that these seniors lack. The learning skills they gained in high school are sharp, but they still get mislead in the ‘sales' pitches all the enrollment advisors present to students. They get the (hip) of that university will be the best they have, and that financial aid will cover all the tuition. Therefore, preventing measures by the government, universities, and colleges must be installed to protect students transitioning from high school to college. First, reforms need to occur in the position of the enrollment advisors. The universities must ensure that they act as mentors and counselors rather than business representatives. The government should implement policies that ensure that higher learning institutions provide accurate information that cannot mislead the people. Lastly, the institutions must show awareness of the important position they have in the country of creating professionals. Education should come first and business second, even for the for-profit organizations that depend on student finances.

References

Lockwood, P., Hunt, E., Matlack, R., & Kelley, J. (2013). From community college to a four-year institution: A model for recruitment and retention. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 37(8), 613-619.

Deming, D., Goldin, C., & Katz, L. (2013). For-profit colleges. The Future of Children, 137-163.

Bergseth, B., Petocz, P., & Abrandt Dahlgren, M. (2014). Ranking quality in higher education: guiding or misleading? Quality in Higher Education, 20(3), 330-347.

Schade, S. A. (2014). Reining in the predatory nature of for-profit colleges. Ariz. L. Rev., 56, 317.

Mansell, W. (2013). Misleading the public understanding of assessment: Wilful or wrongful interpretation by government and media. Oxford Review of Education, 39(1), 128-138.

Becker, H. S. (2017). Making the grade: The academic side of college life. Routledge.

Hugo, E. (2012). Recruitment Practices Change, but Issues Remain the Same. Journal of College Admission, 214, 38-39.