Should all Engineering majors in every University be free with 100% acceptance?

[gizmo J]

I was talking to my classmates about the idea of free college+100% acceptance rates and some of them said they don't believe it should be free and available for everyone because "If everyone had a degree, college degrees would be useless and people would need to get a Ph.D to flip burgers at McDonald's".

I do kind of agree with them when it comes to subjects such as Art/Business/Law/Language/History and such but when it comes to Engineering I feel that it should be accessible to everyone because that would cause tremendous leaps to better Infrastructure and Technology.

I told my classmates that the reason people in poor parts of the world don't have things such as Buildings/Electricity/Farms/Transportation is because THEY DON'T KNOW HOW TO CREATE THEM and having access to Engineering classes would fix their problems.

Then some argued that people in poverty DO know how to create Infrastructure but they just "cant" because that's just how economics work and that you cant have "rich" without "poor" and that having access to Engineering classes would not improve ANYTHING!

So what do you guys think?

 

[YoungBoyd]

.

Then some argued that people in poverty DO know how to create Infrastructure but they just "cant" because that's just how economics work and that you cant have "rich" without "poor" and that having access to Engineering classes would not improve ANYTHING!

So what do you guys think?

Even if you do have the knowledge, you still need a lot of capital for such big projects. And poor countries with really low gdp they don't have the funds.

 

[LEWIS540]

I told my classmates that the reason people in poor parts of the world don't have things such as Buildings/Electricity/Farms/Transportation is because THEY DON'T KNOW HOW TO CREATE THEM and having access to Engineering classes would fix their problems.


So what do you guys think?

lol

Education on the 3rd world should be free........

 

[JayElectra]

I think you've solved most of the world's problems, TS.

 

[markulous]

College should be much cheaper. Being in debt forever in order to educate yourself and be more productive in society is backwards. Maybe charge more for arts degrees and reduce the cost for a BS since those are typically much more practical.

I'll go ahead and disagree with your friends' logic though. If college was free for everyone, not everyone would have a degree. Plenty of people that are too lazy or just don't have what it takes to complete a degree. There would still be no degree requirement to flip burgers at McDonalds.

 

[zackryder]

all education should be free regardless. competence & acceptance is another issue.

 

[zackryder]

college should be much cheaper. Being in debt forever in order to educate yourself and be more productive in society is backwards. Maybe charge more for arts degrees and reduce the cost for a bs since those are typically much more practical.

i'll go ahead and disagree with your friends' logic though. If college was free for everyone, not everyone would have a degree. Plenty of people that are too lazy or just don't have what it takes to complete a degree. There would still be no degree requirement to flip burgers at mcdonalds.

qft

 

[jamiehunter]

100% acceptance is good in theory but in reality it will lower the educational standards.

 

[Cygnus A]

I believe China has free universities and they are definitely catching up to our technology because of it. It is only a matter of time before they surpass our capabilities. Im sure they are far beyond us on the manufacturing front already, but the development side they are mostly copy-cats right now.

I would love to see a reinvestment in education by the US government, sadly that will never happen because Republicans think poor people are not working hard enough, and should work harder so they can pay for college. This is completely absurd, and why people don't understand an educated population is better than an uneducated one still confuses me.

One of the bigger problems is where are you going to put students? Colleges already turn students away by the truckload because they are full.

 

[milliniar]

even if it was free you'd still have to pass. Just stick attendance requirements and such. I know i've passed a few university/college classes without showing up.

 

[Thai Otoshi]

I don't think it should be free, but it definitely shouldn't be what it is now, which is leaving students in debt for the rest of their goddamn lives.

Tuition should be adjusted to be comfortably affordable for a graduate to pay off within 5 years of graduation, assuming that they're working in their prospective field. Also, colleges and universities should be held accountable if their graduates aren't able to find work in their fields of study within a year of graduation. That signifies a systemic problem that cannot be allowed to continue.

 

[gizmo J]

100% acceptance is good in theory but in reality it will lower the educational standards.

I think if the exams are made to be more challenging to pass, the degrees would not have less value just because the school offers 100% acceptance.

 

[Hankooks]

Getting a degree doesn't guarantee you'll succeed in your profession. Learn a trade, make money, fuck debt. Two of the most moronic people I've ever known had their masters. They sure thought they were smart though.

 

[GoatMcGoat**]

qft

And yet once it was excepted that everyone should be able to get a basic BA degree they became devalued to the point they are no more valuable then a high school diploma from years prior.

we can say ' it won't happen again' but once upon a time any degree was valuable and special and now that is not the case. Many degree holding individuals who would be lucky to work their way up at McD's.

 

[D3thr0n3d K1ng]

The more educated a society the better a society is.

 

[Doughbelly]

Tuition is free or effectively almost free (nominal charges on the order for a few hundred bucks for a year) in pretty much most of Europe. Not ever European walks around with a degree.

 

[AronaBeatsJones]

Agreed with OP.

I think education in general should be free, but in such a system, I'd like to think most students would be smart enough to try their hand at a STEM field because it has the best prospects.

I'm currently a mechanical engineering student at a college here in Toronto, and my student debt is already north of $20k. Obviously, I'm already stressed over it, and know by the time I'm done, my first year's salary will probably be completely consumed by paying off my debts, which is tedious since I'm nearing my late 20s as it is, and already have home ownership financial burdens to deal with as well.

The truth is though, we are on the cusp of an engineering revolution, similar to that of the computer revolution in the '80s/'90s. 3D Printing and robotics are going to drastically change the world (just as much negatively as positively, considering all of the labour jobs that will be replaced by them), and mechanical engineering is the foundation of those technologies, so arguably, being a mechanical engineer could be the safest job in the next generation. For that reason alone, there should be a major effort by governments to produce as many engineers as possible for the sake of economic security.

 

[Avenger]

Did you attain your three masters degrees yet?

 

[jamiehunter]

I think if the exams are made to be more challenging to pass, the degrees would not have less value just because the school offers 100% acceptance.

Generally, universities look at student performance when evaluating a professor. If too few pass that's a bad reflection on the professor and may impact his continued employment, tenure, salary negotiations, which classes he teaches, etc. If literally everybody is let into a program regardless of merit or ability, specifically engineering, professors will make the classes easier so enough students pass.

There's also the issue of student evaluations. Student evaluations are used in evaluating professors and classes that are too hard for the average student will lead to bad reviews.

 

[markulous]

And yet once it was excepted that everyone should be able to get a basic BA degree they became devalued to the point they are no more valuable then a high school diploma from years prior.

we can say ' it won't happen again' but once upon a time any degree was valuable and special and now that is not the case. Many degree holding individuals who would be lucky to work their way up at McD's.

Only if it's something useless like Bachelor's of Arts in Art History or something. There are plenty of BS degrees that are required for a lot of jobs. If someone that has a practical degree like that is working at McDonald's and/or can't move up there, it's 100% on them and not the degree.