SUCCESS IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Success in Higher Education

Success in Higher Education

Higher education requires a considerable investment of time and money, as wall as a considerable lifestyle change. Those entering college or a university must not only be willing to pay tuition cost and school fees, and study for many years to get a degree, they must also arrange the rest of their lives around classes, exams, semesters, and summer breaks. Given the gargantuan effort it requires to secure a higher education, some may reasonably question the value of a college degree. It is well known that many successful and affluent people in our society have not completed a university or college education. Although higher education does not completely guarantee success, there is considerable evidence that a college or university education is of immeasurable value to most individuals. Especially if we are willing to expand our definition of educational value to include personal value, personal fulfillment, as well as the more traditional notions of financial and career success, it is possible to determine that a higher education provides considerable value to those who undertake its tasks. Indeed, a college or university education prepares us for a better paying career, helps to develop essential communication and critical thinking skills, helps students to develop as individuals, and exposes students to ideas of networking, discipline, time management and work.

Many studies have suggested the correlation between a higher education degree and the probability of attaining a job after high school graduation: around ninety percent of all [university and college] availed for work, including those in the arts and humanities subjects are employed or enter further training (usually with a vocational orientation, as in the cases of teaching or law) within a year of graduation. The overall pattern is consistent across disciplines and across time. In 1995, for example, 12.1 percent of graduates in English were unemployed within a year, while the corresponding figure for Business Studies was only a fraction lower at 12 percent. Last year, this tiny difference was, as it happened, reversed, with English graduates entering jobs 0.1 percent more readily than their peers in Business Studies (Rylance & Simons, 2001, p. 73)

A higher education provides students with communication skills and literacy that are highly prized at the university and college levels. Through assignments, formal written papers (Like this one), and exams, students are taught to develop their ideas on paper. Evaluation ...