Meaning & Value of Higher Education (Research Paper Sample)

Meaning and Value of Higher Education
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Meaning and Value of Higher Education
Higher education is extremely valuable since it is seen as a means of achieving financial security through getting a rewarding job. Statistics show that people who have attained higher education are likely to enjoy higher standards of living than people without higher education. A survey conducted in 2009 in more than 25 countries showed that a male individual with a college degree has a long-term economic advantage worth more than 175,000 dollars over a male individual with an upper secondary degree. For females with college degrees, the long-term economic advantage was approximately 110,000 US dollars. The estimated life earnings for people who have graduated from college are 1.6 million dollars higher than those of high school graduates. Investing in higher education is one of the most important decisions a person can make in life. The cost of higher education has however, risen astronomically making it unaffordable to people from the lower tiers of society. There have also been cases of extremely successful people who did not go to college. This paper discusses the meaning and value of higher education in the context of the emerging trends. It reaches the conclusion that in spite of the challenges and the obstacles, higher education is still valuable.
Acquiring a higher education requires a lot of financial resources. The direct and indirect costs are very high and they are usually catered for through loan repayments or up-front payments, The opportunity cost of foregone earnings when a person is in school, and the time invested in acquiring a degree are major factors in determining whether higher education is beneficial (Austin, 2012). Are the benefits of higher education more than the costs? Studies have shown that investing in higher education has the highest returns on investment as compared to all the other forms of investment. Employees with higher education usually have higher salaries than employees without higher education. An additional year of higher education results to a five to ten percent annual salary increase (Knight & Yorke, 2013). The value of education in the labor market cannot be under-estimated. Higher education enables people to be more effective in the production of commodities. It also enables people to produce higher output from the same level of inputs.
Higher education institutions are meant to serve society through improving the quality of life of citizens and supporting a country’s economy. The advancement of online and digital education shows that higher education is still highly valued in the 21st century. The benefits of higher education are immense and indisputable. Higher education institutions provide individuals with extremely important social networks (Austin, 2013). Networks formed in college play a fundamental role in securing jobs as managers often recruit people from their extended social networks. Upon graduation, graduates usually have ready-made networks which they rely on to advance in their future careers.
Higher education is also crucial for personal and professional development. Majoring in a subject that is directly applicable to the job a person gets after graduation is extremely valuable for a person's career. Collages also provide great opportunities to do internships and work as an apprentice. The opportunities extend a person’s network and directly facilitate professional development. Higher education is also crucial for personal development since college gives students time to grow and mature as individuals as well as time to become independent (Austin, 2012). Taking classes that don’t have an immediate and direct professional benefit such as literature or history builds a student’s problem solving, creativity, and critical thinking skills.
College degrees are usually brands that graduate students use to sell themselves in the labor market. A degree from a reputable institution contributes a lot in leading to gainful employment. Companies filter job candidates by examining the ranking of the institution where the candidates went to college. Attending a prestigious institution increases employability by a very wide margin. The rate of unemployment among college graduates is half that of high school graduates (Knight & Yorke, 2013). Even though a college degree does not guarantee automatic access to a well-paying job; it opens unlimited doors of opportunities. Higher education has played a phenomenal role in the achievement of economic growth in developing countries. For instance, focusing on higher education has enabled South Korea to rise from being one of the poorest nations in the world to being one of the richest nations in the world. China’s iconic rise is also directly attributable to enrolment of high numbers of students in higher education institutions (Austin, 2012).
Higher education also contributes significantly to research and invention of new products and services. Faculty members in higher education institutions usually identify the problems being faced by society, and come with up with guidelines and procedures on how the problems should be tackled . Most of the inventions that have changed the world were discovered in higher education institutions by faculty members or students working on their theses or research projects . Case in point is Google which was discovered by Sergey Brin and Larry Page while working their Ph.D. at Stanford University (Knight & York, 2013). The cures for many diseases have also been discovered at university labs as well as multiple inventions across all educational disciplines. The number of innovations made at universities is overwhelming including the algorithm for Google searches, life-saving cancer AID and cancer drugs, and genetically modified food (Austin, 2012). Universities have generated industries like nanoscience and biotechnology from scratch leading to creation of hundreds of jobs and thousands of companies. Through innovations and innovations, universities have been the indirect sources of billions of dollars.
Students and parents struggling with college costs are likely to question the meaning and value of higher education. 80% of undergraduates study at public colleges where costs are continuing to increase. College aid through grants and loans is being threatened by economic recessions. During the first years of employment, college graduates are likely to grapple with the challenge of low salaries and high student loan debts. Nevertheless, college education is still important in the 21st century. The high costs of acquiring higher education have made some people to assume that college degrees are over-rated. The assumption that higher education qualifications are overvalued does not hold water. In recession and boom times, college graduates have lower unemployment rates than less educated people. Every type of college degree generates positive returns. Even after deducting foregone earnings and college costs, college graduates make 84% more money in their life time than high school graduates (Austin, 2012).
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