Research Blog #4: Research Proposal Final Repost

Hamdi Saglam
Research Proposal, Final Draft

1)Privatization and Its Effects on the Evolution of US Higher Education
2)Privatization and the inevitable corporatization of US higher education system created a system where students are customers and universities are businesses trying to maximize profit. As incompatible as they may be with education, corporate concepts took hold in US universities. Quality of education dropped significantly in some colleges due to budget cuts and outsourcing. Corporatization also created top-down college administrations that are not in line with that of a traditional university. Corporatization made universities too aggressive in the education market. They started marketing more aggressively -normal for a retail company but unusual for a university-to attract more students. This uncontrolled growth, coupled with budget cuts, decreases quality of education given since the attention and resources of the university are diverted to marketing rather than academics. What is more striking is that students are ignorant of the deteriorating condition of the education system. Despite having the right to protest, students are not demanding of the system. In my paper, I will talk about the changes brought by corporatization. I will try to pinpoint their effects on universities, negative and/or positive.
3)Is privatization part of the evolution of the US higher education system for the better or an invasion of the education system by the corporate world?
4)Privatization takes away from the spirit of traditional higher education by making it too materialistic, expansionist, competitive, and not demographically egalitarian. As a result of privatization, corporatization takes hold in universities. Its concepts, however, are not compatible for running a quality higher education institution. Numbers become too important in a corporation. Universities, on the other hand, are places of learning where -ideally- numbers come secondary to academics.Corporate demand for profit and expansion create financially healthy but academically failing schools. Corporations also makes universities too aggressive in the education market, they try to get more students to bring in more revenue. Even though controlled investment and expansion are necessary for universities to serve a growing population, uncontrolled growth of a university has the potential to decrease quality by overextending its administration and faculty.
5)-What fuels privatization ? Is it part of higher education’s evolution for the better or is it an intrusion of alien concepts and values?
-Universities used to be scenes of Civil Rights and War Protests (Vietnam). College population used to be politically active. What changed? What made students less sensitive about the world?
-What effect does privatization have on the college experience?
-is privatization necessarily a bad thing?Can the financial benefits ever be significant enough to make up for the radical changes?
-we have the right to protest, but does it really help the cause?is protesting in campuses the right way to go about it?
-did privatization create a politically passive college environment? (Do people care about politics when they are shopping?)
6)
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