Future of the University

Hello again! Well, this week’s discussion is on the ‘Future of the university’- well, we are not expected to predict university enrollments but what we expect should change in higher education. Now, the most common things we expect in US higher education to change could be decrease in tuition fees, more research funding opportunities, more tenure-track positions and conversion of adjunct professorships and instructorships to tenure-track positions.

For me, however, there is one more thing. Last year, we were holed up in our tiny rooms attending lectures via Zoom and worrying about our friends and family in other parts of the world. There was a rise in mental health issues being reported across the country. This paper highlights the problem- 71% percent students showed increased levels of stress ,anxiety and depressive health. About 54% of the participants in the study stated the reason being increased acadmeic workload. 82% stated the reason for the decline in mental health being concerns about academic performance. A little over this number, 91% (4 participants more in quantity) expressed the reason being the pandemic. It is not difficult to connect the dots here.

It is a very sad fact that while people were worrying all over the wolrd over the pandemic killing their dear ones, unpaid rent, lost jobs, increased political polarization and the advent of anti-science protests, students were still worrying about their academic performance. This shows how much the system needs to change to help maintain the mental health of students. An even sadder fact from this paper is a vast majority of the participants in the study (76%) used ‘self-management’ to ‘overcome’ their issues and 93% of the participants had not used university mental health services due to a variety of reasons. This is what makes me feel skeptical about the talk of ‘the magnitude of resources’ people often talk about in the US education system. If there really are such mental healthr esources, why are students not using them? If they are unaware, why aren’t universities talking about it?

My argument is not towards reducing the costs if the university is not doing a lot. If it is not able to do its best in promoting its mental health resources and helping students, it should increase its fees but help students overcome their mental health disorders. Financial strength is not as important as mental strength of a university’s students.