US HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM

US Higher Education System

US Higher Education System

Introduction

In the United States, higher education has yielded considerable value to individuals and society. The societal benefits of higher education include knowledge creation, economic well-being and productivity of citizens, and direct expenditures by the institutions, their employees, and their students, which impact local economies. Education has long been an essential foundation of democracy. The extent to which citizens are afforded equal educational opportunity is often considered indicative of a society's power relations. While greater educational attainment has been found to be important to society, historically most attention has been on its implications for the mobility and opportunities afforded to individuals.

The benefits of postsecondary education for individuals include knowledge acquisition, an appreciation for learning and the fine arts, and refinement of social discourse skills. Further, one compelling reasons for college attendance for many is its ability to afford social mobility. Consider the economic benefits: In the United States, educational attainment is strongly correlated with individual earnings, better quality of life, and economic security. In 2003, the typical full-time year-round worker in the United States with a 4-year college degree earned $49,900, 62% more than the $30,800 earned by the typical full-time year-round worker with only a high school diploma (College Board, 2005). Those with master's degrees earned almost twice as much, and those with professional degrees earned over three times as much per year as high school graduates. The gap in earnings between college degree holders and those with only a high school diploma are estimated to result in a gap of more than $1 million over a lifetime.

Historical Context of Access to and Participation in Higher Education

Historically, trends in social mobility for different populations in the United States are correlated with education attainment. Once in our nation's history, higher education was a privilege that was reserved for a small sector of our society, the elite. Recent scholarship has widened our understanding of the extent to which, for example, certain religious groups, notably Jews, were excluded from elite postsecondary institutions in the early part of the 20th century not only by quotas, but in some cases with the use of creative admissions formulae that incorporated seemingly unquantifiable criteria such as “evidence of character” in prospective students' applications (Karabel, 2005). Catholics, too, long considered to be undesirable, were victims of discriminatory admissions practices both at the undergraduate and graduate or professional levels. Catholic colleges were also considered suspect at points in time with some refusing to recognize baccalaureate degrees awarded by Jesuit schools (Mahoney, 2003).

Since the 1950s, higher education has become a mechanism relied upon to create opportunity for the masses. When looking at student participation literature, terms like democratization, massification, and universalization are used to describe the large percentages of college-aged U.S. citizens and residents who enroll in postsecondary institutions. Politicians and economists even debate the pros and cons of “the right” to higher education such that all Americans would have access to what is now considered to be a vital tool ...