When it comes to higher education one phrase that seems to both entice and frighten many. General education, or “gen ed” is a multitude of classes usually required by most, if not all accredited higher education institutions. Though some find gen ed classes to be beneficial, others find it to be a burden due to high cost and insignificant value. Students and professors alike have found how unnecessary gen ed classes have become, some students believe many gen ed courses to be a repeat of their high school experience, while professors have found that forcing students to take gen ed courses lowers student’s interest in the course and thus the students don’t actually learn, but instead follow a method called “memorization and regurgitation”. With …show more content…
The university tends to hurt itself with gen ed courses. Darrell Warner and Katie Koeppel did an analysis on gen ed courses and found thirty percent of students all across the country find college to be “too much work” for them to put any effort into it. Though it doesn’t seem like much thirty percent can be enough to harm and institution just because of some general education classes that are required. As it turns out about half of that thirty percent goes into the military to avoid the college predicament and the other half try to find their way out of it, by getting real world experience out in the workforce or getting enough certifications to get them at least close enough the job and pay grade they want. “Another examination of the general education curriculum found that general education at most colleges and universities was based almost entirely on loose distribution systems. These systems led to a number of problems, including (1) the curricula lacked a unifying philosophy that students could grasp, (2) the curricula were fragmented and best described as a “smorgasbord,” and (3) students generally did not see the utility of studying general education materials and thus lacked motivation or interest in mastering the traditional liberal arts subject matter” (Warner, Koeppel, 243). Growing Universities are suffering the most from this concept, colleges like Columbus State University can get more government funding and more growth if the students keeping wanting to come to Columbus, unfortunately when the student don’t come, the funding from both the students and the government does not come. All because the retention of students helps maintain the university. Retention rates are another factor where gen ed classes come into play. Warner and Koepell also mention the retention rate of students in their analysis. Their finding show that forty-two