Standards in many institutions of higher learning are falling. In the competition for government subsidies, many accept students with little or no selection criteria. Teachers and students alike claim that higher education is increasingly teaching what should have been learned in secondary school. There is also a pervading erosion of entry standards into postgraduate programmes, lowering the status of Masters and Doctoral degrees.
One fifth of Americans over the age of 25 have completed four years of college. Great news, until you try to find someone who's read anything but best-sellers, who has an iota of historical imagination, or who manifests curiosity about anything but money, sports, entertainment or hobbies. The folk belief that "going to college" is equivalent to becoming educated is precious to Americans. Often students gain their degrees by accumulating credits in various unrelated and usually trivial subjects. The majority of degrees now awarded to young Americans measure the rude command of techniques likely to fit the recipient uncritically into the ready-made niches of American middle-class society. Twenty-four percent of American bachelors degrees are in business.