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Soft Power: the quality of higher education
A recurrent theme in military and intelligence community assessments of national economic strength is that the US lags in science, math and engineering education. The acronym SME, and the concomitant wailing and gnashing of teeth over America's failure to graduate sufficient SME PhDs, figures prominently in various analysts' work.
Those articles often advocate an increase in temporary visas for SME graduates, which in fact are a straightforward, longstanding and well-funded effort by companies that employ thousands of computer programmers to increase the supply of employees they can hire, especially those bound to the company itself by the restrictive terms of their visas.
The US higher education system is riddled with problems, but the most severe difficulties do not surface in the "sky is falling" pleas for special treatment by military and intelligence community organizations.
Years of underfunding of state universities; of tuition and fee increases far in excess of inflation; and shifting of the costs of higher education from public sources to student loans have burdened American university graduates with excessive debt levels, slowed their progress to earning degrees and narrowed the choices available to them.
These economic policies have favored both the military services, which gain volunteers driven to the colors as the only available means of raising the funds needed for college, and private employers, who know that university graduates will fiercely compete for jobs in a bid to pay their student loans. The entire process also impairs upward mobility in the US, which now lags behind that in Europe (where most students face very low tuition charges).
US primary, secondary and postsecondary education does face a problem that's apparently absent in China, or reversed: that of a comprehensive bias against boys and young men in curriculum design, financial incentives and hiring practices. The adoption of practices that penalize boys and young men has, predictably, deterred them from entering or staying in organizations where the playing field is tilted against them, including most educational institutions and universities. The resulting deficit of male university graduates becomes a topic to be viewed with concern, i.e. complained about without taking action.
One striking result of single-sex domination of certain academic departments is a misallocation of resources elsewhere in the economy. For example, social work departments in US universities nationwide are dominated by women professors and students. That's the key reason why, even though literally hundreds of studies verify that aggressors in domestic violence cases are composed of 50 percent or more females (in cross-gender attacks), the number of shelters for abused men is dwarfed by the network of shelters for abused women.
By the same token, physical education and sports departments have been required to fund women's sports on the same level as their male counterparts for decades under the Title IX law, which forced universities to shutter dozens of varsity sports programs for men. But departments dominated by women students and professors, including women's studies, drama, nursing and literature, face no such compulsory allocation of scholarships and funds to benefit men; far less a mandate to shut down scholarships and programs that benefit women so as to achieve an equal participation by men.
Problems in China vary, and overlap only slightly. The failure of China's university system to promote social mobility is illustrated in the second article cited below.
But the most severe flaw in China's postsecondary education system is the low quality of instruction, as described in the second article cited.
Both factors make China's vaunted achievements in the "numbers game" of graduating SME PhDs appear far less impressive than many outsiders assume.
The fourth article explains the debatable benefits and harsh causes of "Tiger Mom" parenting and education; and its effect of stifling creativity while promoting unhappiness.
The final article describes the special situation of Chinese diploma mills cheating international students. The US has a diploma mill problem as well; in fact, diploma mills and fake degrees emerged simultaneously with the creation of modern universities, during the 11th century CE in Europe.
The intelligence technology implications of all this flow to the two countries' preparedness for, or "posture," vis-a-vis their cyber- and meatworld intelligence and military/naval rivalries.
http://www.fangkc.com/2010/10/several-facts-about-chinas-higher-education-1/
http://www.fangkc.com/2011/02/gambling-for-a-phd-degree-in-china/
http://www.fangkc.com/2010/11/several-facts-about-chinas-higher-education-2/
http://www.fangkc.com/2011/02/chinese-mothers-are-forced-to-be-tiger-moms/
http://www.fangkc.com/2011/04/caution-diploma-mills-in-china-deceiving-international-students/
A recurrent theme in military and intelligence community assessments of national economic strength is that the US lags in science, math and engineering education. The acronym SME, and the concomitant wailing and gnashing of teeth over America's failure to graduate sufficient SME PhDs, figures prominently in various analysts' work.
Those articles often advocate an increase in temporary visas for SME graduates, which in fact are a straightforward, longstanding and well-funded effort by companies that employ thousands of computer programmers to increase the supply of employees they can hire, especially those bound to the company itself by the restrictive terms of their visas.
The US higher education system is riddled with problems, but the most severe difficulties do not surface in the "sky is falling" pleas for special treatment by military and intelligence community organizations.
Years of underfunding of state universities; of tuition and fee increases far in excess of inflation; and shifting of the costs of higher education from public sources to student loans have burdened American university graduates with excessive debt levels, slowed their progress to earning degrees and narrowed the choices available to them.
These economic policies have favored both the military services, which gain volunteers driven to the colors as the only available means of raising the funds needed for college, and private employers, who know that university graduates will fiercely compete for jobs in a bid to pay their student loans. The entire process also impairs upward mobility in the US, which now lags behind that in Europe (where most students face very low tuition charges).
US primary, secondary and postsecondary education does face a problem that's apparently absent in China, or reversed: that of a comprehensive bias against boys and young men in curriculum design, financial incentives and hiring practices. The adoption of practices that penalize boys and young men has, predictably, deterred them from entering or staying in organizations where the playing field is tilted against them, including most educational institutions and universities. The resulting deficit of male university graduates becomes a topic to be viewed with concern, i.e. complained about without taking action.
One striking result of single-sex domination of certain academic departments is a misallocation of resources elsewhere in the economy. For example, social work departments in US universities nationwide are dominated by women professors and students. That's the key reason why, even though literally hundreds of studies verify that aggressors in domestic violence cases are composed of 50 percent or more females (in cross-gender attacks), the number of shelters for abused men is dwarfed by the network of shelters for abused women.
By the same token, physical education and sports departments have been required to fund women's sports on the same level as their male counterparts for decades under the Title IX law, which forced universities to shutter dozens of varsity sports programs for men. But departments dominated by women students and professors, including women's studies, drama, nursing and literature, face no such compulsory allocation of scholarships and funds to benefit men; far less a mandate to shut down scholarships and programs that benefit women so as to achieve an equal participation by men.
Problems in China vary, and overlap only slightly. The failure of China's university system to promote social mobility is illustrated in the second article cited below.
But the most severe flaw in China's postsecondary education system is the low quality of instruction, as described in the second article cited.
Both factors make China's vaunted achievements in the "numbers game" of graduating SME PhDs appear far less impressive than many outsiders assume.
The fourth article explains the debatable benefits and harsh causes of "Tiger Mom" parenting and education; and its effect of stifling creativity while promoting unhappiness.
The final article describes the special situation of Chinese diploma mills cheating international students. The US has a diploma mill problem as well; in fact, diploma mills and fake degrees emerged simultaneously with the creation of modern universities, during the 11th century CE in Europe.
The intelligence technology implications of all this flow to the two countries' preparedness for, or "posture," vis-a-vis their cyber- and meatworld intelligence and military/naval rivalries.
http://www.fangkc.com/2010/10/several-facts-about-chinas-higher-education-1/
http://www.fangkc.com/2011/02/gambling-for-a-phd-degree-in-china/
http://www.fangkc.com/2010/11/several-facts-about-chinas-higher-education-2/
http://www.fangkc.com/2011/02/chinese-mothers-are-forced-to-be-tiger-moms/
http://www.fangkc.com/2011/04/caution-diploma-mills-in-china-deceiving-international-students/
