I listened to an interesting podcast by To The Point aired on KCRW. The topic “Why Do So Many Students Fail to Graduate?” is related to two issues that I am greatly invested in: financial aid and higher education. I highley recommend listening to this episode to hear the different ideas as to why college students don’t graduate and what universities and students can do to resolve this issue.
Here are three highlights that offered great insight:
- Balance: Students will succeed in decreasing their debt and increasing their academic standing by balancing how they pay for school. Students who receive little to no federal or state aid will most likely have to borrow a student loan, but that doesn’t mean that they should borrow the maximum available amount. Working a part-time job to supplement the cost for academic expenses will decrease the student’s borrowed loan debt. However, the student needs to balance their hours spent working with the amount of the time they should be spending in class or working on assignments. To graduate with lower debt and satisfactory grades, the student should contribute their working income towards academic expenses, borrow to a reasonable amount and achieve satisfactory grades.
- Rush to the Finish Line: Universities and students waste government funding by trying to graduate students as quick as possible. In my opinion, tuition cost is great factor to this problem. The rising cost of tuition rushes students to get in and out as quick as possible, which leads to receiving poor grades and not getting your monies worth.
- Obsession: Universities have an obsession with completion rate rather than quality. It is time for universities to begin focusing on the quality of their academics instead of attempting to raise their completion rate, which is experiencing a decline.
What are your opinions? Do you agree or disagree?
{Original post date March 12, 2013}
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