The obvious sold as new discovery

Four Years of College Isn't for Everyone, Harvard Study Says

By Janet Lorin - Feb 2, 2011 3:01 AM GMT-0200

The U.S. is focusing too much attention on helping students pursue four-year college degrees, when two-year and occupational programs may better prepare them for the job market, a Harvard University report said.
The “college for all” movement has produced only incremental gains as other nations leapfrog the United States, and the country is failing to prepare millions of young people to become employable adults, said the authors of the Pathways to Prosperity Project, based at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Most of the 47 million jobs to be created by 2018 will require some postsecondary education, the report said. Educators should offer young people two-year degrees and apprenticeships to achieve career success, and do more to ensure that students who begin such programs complete them, said Robert Schwartz, academic dean at Harvard’s education school, who heads the Pathways project.
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Comment: With the general demise of common sense that has been produced by the same colleges that now say what always has been clear, we have another example of the decline of higher education in the US, with Harvard in the lead. Who brought up the idea of "college for all"? It was the self-interest of the college business in the first place. By promoting such a silly idea they universities have not only ruined themselves in terms of quality but the college system has also wrought havoc for their students and the negative fallout on the economy will be felt for decades to come.