[bnralt]

I agree. We should go further, and think about what we, as a society, are actually trying to accomplish with higher education and how good universities are at achieving those goals. Not just some vague "it teaches you how to think"/"it teaches you how to be a good citizen" goals with no attempt made to actually see if we're achieving it. Real, concrete goals, with actual effort put into determining of the system is actually furthering those goals.

From what I've seen, the current university system is a very inefficient way of achieving what we're trying to accomplish.

[achenet]

this is exactly how admin bloat starts. Now we nee a dean of "Real, Concrete Goals", and some arbitrary metrics to 'measure progress' towards those goals, and more administrative underlings to enforce and measure those metrics...

Because obviously the current system of giving academics freedom to pursue their interests is just 'inefficient'.

[remarkEon]

I was writing more or less your text in response to a related comment, but you are exactly right.

The system is so broken that that only response would be to hire some "director" or "dean" of "making our education relevant again".

There is no solution other than blowing up the entire system. Maybe intentionally bankrupting some Universities would be a strong enough signal such that the ones that actually do want to stay relevant will self-select into a reform model.

[pdimitar]

So the current system is just perfect as it is and all criticisms towards it are misguided? Is that what you're implying?

[ajmurmann]

What are we trying to accomplish?