High Tuition, Low-Quality Education, and Racism: The Spiral Eroding Academic Integrity

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

High tuition, limited learning, and racism threaten the integrity of academia. Instead of its core mission of enabling an informed democratic citizenry, higher education under the academic capitalism model increasingly works as an engine of stratification and wealth extraction – a change that embroils students and professors alike. This chapter identifies a vicious cycle that starts with a belief in meritocracy and markets, making high tuition seem desirable. High tuition leads to an erosion in quality learning, creating fear and precariousness among students. Particularly with universities’ indirect diversity-centered approaches to issues of race and racism, white students see race as one of the most legitimate targets for their grievances generated by academic capitalism. They see affirmative action type of efforts to level the playing field and calls for racial justice as violating the rules of meritocracy under which they toil. Raising tuition provides one of the most expeditious solutions, making higher education live up to its meritocratic promise and starting the cycle anew. Fighting this trend and bolstering the integrity of a democratic education requires students, professors, and administrators to not only grasp the inherent value of a broad education but also to acquire a critical and sophisticated understanding of the role of higher education in society and people’s lives.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationSpringer International Handbooks of Education
Pages1149-1168
Number of pages20
DOIs
StatePublished - 2024

Publication series

NameSpringer International Handbooks of Education
VolumePart F2304
ISSN (Print)2197-1951
ISSN (Electronic)2197-196X

Keywords

  • Academic capitalism
  • Affirmative action
  • Consumerism
  • Credentialism
  • Democracy
  • Diversity
  • Fear
  • High tuition
  • Limited learning
  • Meritocracy
  • Neoliberalism
  • Quality learning
  • Racism
  • Student debt

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