What characterizes the college experience in the public eye today? Forced to respond, many might say drinking and Facebook. It seems studying would come in a distant third, if even that high.
A recent collaboration between The New York Times and The Chronicle of Higher Education revealed that standards for curriculum in college courses have fallen, particularly in business schools. The study found that close to half of senior business majors have spent less than 11 hours a week preparing for class.
The exception was noted that many in the top 50 business schools, as ranked by Businessweek, pull much longer weeks than those outside the top 50. ASU’s W. P. Carey School of Business was ranked 77.
While this study singled out business majors, it would be unfair to call them out specifically while pretending that every other major has exemplary students and a rigor that is more intense than any business major.
The overall amount of actual studying that goes on has fallen dramatically. Another Chronicle report profiled two economists who found that college students in 1961 studied about 40 hours a week and college students in 2003 studied only 27 hours a week.
While 27 hours may seem like a lot, this 13-hour difference amounts to about 1,500 fewer hours studying over the course of an undergraduate career. So the decline has been across the board and not just in business schools.
What has caused this decline? Well, all the of these studies point out that classes have gotten a easier and students take classes where they know they will get a higher grade.
Clearly this is an issue that needs to be addressed — it is unfair to future generations to leave today’s generation undereducated. If we are really to be the leaders of tomorrow, how can we lead if all we learned was how to skate by in college?
In theory this sounds amazing and achievable, but demands on students are increasing. A 2006 study by the American Council on Education found that in the 2003-2004 school year, 78 percent of undergraduate students had a job where they worked an average of 30 hours a week.
Unfortunately, the cost of education keeps rising so the number of students in college working and the hours they work each week show no signs of declining. On top of this, students generally must attain internships to develop contacts and prospects for employment — and many of these are unpaid.
As students, we can tell the tales of working, internships and studying.
Many of these ivory-tower academics do not understand the rigor of outside commitments college students have. So if we want to spend more time on the books, something’s gotta give.
We would love to spend more time studying, but it’s also important to pay rent and tuition as well as buy groceries.
To all the critics of students today out there, we share your concerns and want to leave college better educated than today’s graduates do. But in order to accomplish that, you must also share our concern for making ends meet.
