As stated in one of our readings, "thousands of newspaper articles have been printed criticizing the industry as a whole..." and these types of articles will undoubtedly continue to be written. As a result of media scrutiny, educational entities must now exhibit more transparency and openness as it relates to their operations. At our school, we try to be transparent by communicating openly and regularly with students via email, telephone, written correspondence, television monitor, etc. The campus has also adopted the "spirit of showcasing" which was discussed under the section called, "Identifying Best Practices."
Amman ,
Thanks for your comments. I agree that there are problems with some schools and while regulation is intended to help, some of the regulations do not seem to address the root cause of the issues while causing additional burden to other schools that are not part of the concern.
Traci Lee
I think that the media has influenced the education environment in a negative way. We hear reports almost on a daily basis that school 'X' has a crumbling infrastructure so more resources need to be allocated or that American children rate low on math and science scores so some regulatory agency must oversee curriculum. In some cases, the reporting causes a overreaction to the problem and bring in some agencies that do not have the best interest of the customer/student in mind. I am not saying that bad buildings and inadequate curriculum doesn't happen, clearly they do but the media's reaction to these things is almost always more regulation and I think this can be a hindrance.
The media has influenced in a very bad way the regulatory environment in the education industry today.
I think that the media brings a lot of negativity into career colleges.
Wanda,
The challenge is getting the positive stories out to the media in a way that motivates them to publish the good side.
Traci Lee
I completely agree with you. Many people want to start somewhere and need that stepping stone to help them get where they want to go in life.
Eddie,
Well stated - you really touch on the impact of the student/graduate role as a member of a productive community which is sometimes not mentioned when considering the purpose of higher education.
Traci Lee
The marketplace naturally forces for-profit institutions to offer an educational product that is valuable to students, it is always highlighted in the media outlets. Expectations of the product put out by a career college, the student, is important to show growth in the employment rate and recession. With so much focus on poor numbers in employment by the media, and negative and positives being thrown around with the current administration, institution are forced to show a clear connection to improve the quality of their graduate and provide a proven success. This will support the Institution(s) with obtaining the needed funding to survive and contribute to economic success.
Kristi,
I think most schools have student success stories as well as those where there may not have been a match between the student's needs and the programs offered. While schools should be accountable to providing what they say they offer, there are often a wide range of perceptions even at the same school and/or program that makes it difficult to determine if a problem was an isolated incident or, evidence of a deeper concern.
Traci Lee
In my opinion, portraying something in a positive manner does not bring in good ratings as far as the media is concerned. I live in a city where the university is being investigated by SACS for the mishandling of university funds. I also see that some commercials for schools portray how life would be more rewarding if a student went there, however, listening to students who have dropped out from their program paint a completely different picture.
Unfortunately, the media want to sell and they emphasize in the negative news.Is our responsibility as educators improve the communication with the students and listen their complaints.
Rachet,
I agree that ensuring students have complete awareness of realistic expectations is ideal. I hope that students embrace the opportunity to be informed before selecting their college and program.
Traci Lee
The media is only doing their job, whether its positive or negative feedback. The individual must decide which is best for him/her and try to not let the media influence any decisions.
Whether is positive or negative, the media will do their job. Its up to the individual to do their own research and make the best choice for him/her.
Media plays a huge role on career colleges. However, whether it is good or bad it will provide somehow positive education for the students because at the end there will no surprises to go along the way. Every student's education is no joke and should always be on great team effort.
Kelly,
You bring up an interesting topic with social media outlets. More and more colleges are embracing such forums as a means to identify strengths and areas of concern within their institution.
Traci Lee
I think it has created a lot of hyper vigilance.
I believe media has put pressure on the regulatory bodies to have a more effective way for student's to be handled by the institutions. It is now more important then ever that institutions have a complaint procedure with their state agency for student complaints.
Media also can have negative and positive impacts on schools with social media such as Twitter, Facebook and other media websites. Student's now have the ability to share their experiences with their schools publicly in an open forum. This can create leads for schools but can also turn students away from schools.
The media has led prospective students to believe that achieving a degree at our college is an easy task and that the jobs after graduation are plentiful.
First of all, the students don't realize prior to talking to an admissions advisor that they have to maintain a minimum grade point (in our case B- or better)in order to meet the minimum requirement to be able to take the next class in the program.
Second, our college has many limited enrollment health science programs. Therefore the student must compete against other students for a limited number of seats in the professional tract.
