Should the Chamber of Commerce accredit colleges? A serious battle is shaping up over how college degree programs are evaluated and accredited. The business community believes that higher education does a poor job of preparing students for the work world. More specifically, as reported by the Brookings Institution, “just 11 percent of business leaders believe college graduates are properly equipped for entering the workforce – while 96 percent of college chief academic officers feel they turn out work-ready graduates.” The Chamber of Commerce’s study concludes that accreditation is “operated by higher education for higher education,” but does not reflect the needs of employers and future employees.
College leaders and faculty would question the premise that curriculum should be tied to an external labor market. At the core of a college, there are many disciplines where questions are raised simply to investigate and understand the world better. If the agenda for science was closely tied to the current needs of a business, society’s generation of innovative ideas would be narrowed by the corporate community.
Still, colleges cannot ignore the message that the Chamber of Commerce is sending. A concluding thought—this on bed bugs, of all things! Cornell University faculty recently completed a map of the bedbug’s genome. The pest was virtually eradicated 60 years ago with DDT, an extremely toxic chemical—but surviving bugs adapted and are now resistant to insecticides. The researchers found that the number of genes was consistent throughout the bedbug life cycle, but they observed notable changes in gene expression, especially after first blood meal. The bug basically grows a thicker skin after its first blood meal. This study might or might not have commercial implications—but more fundamentally, it shows how life adapts in a nimble way to existential threats. Will the Chamber of Commerce understand the value of research and study that has no bottom-line impact?
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