The inadvertent economics education that came later was not the university’s doing and they take no credit nor blame for it.
That the money was spent responsibly, for some definition of responsibly. Probably this doesn't mean the sort of abuses detailed in the article.
> If a student goes to university and gets a degree in medieval French literature and then serves coffee for life as a job, the university did its job iff the student demonstrated a level of mastery of medieval French literature.
I'm unconvinced that it would be good to disband humanities departments, or to ban non-STEM degree programs and/or degrees that don't involve training for a specific career path. Last I checked, even MIT has a humanities school (though it seems to be combined with art and social sciences.)
Our society seems to have enough react programmers and could probably use more medievalists, as well as other humanities grads - people who understand the human condition, have some sense and understanding of history, know how to exercise critical thinking skills, and can read and write well. These are skills that could serve someone well in a variety of jobs.
[Moreover, as more jobs (including supposedly highly skilled tech jobs) are automated out of existence, many of us are likely to end up in low-paying service jobs - at least until the robots take those as well.]
Again, this is a consumer affairs issue. These universities are doing false advertising, period.
At scale this has been a failure through and through.
Shoutout out the ultimate technical school of all, MIT.
How? Who knows. Guess they know the right people.
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From my own experience, I will add that educational requirements are almost financial. You need it to be free, educationally. The same way you need money to be free.
But back on point, don’t add swindlers collecting a check on that trek, certainly not on loan, certainly not beyond affordability.
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You make this money and you are free to spend how you spend. You learn this, and you are free to learn how you learn.
Psychosocial.