Don't Waste Your Money at University

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) – Spending as much as $250,000 on a bachelors degree from world-renowned U.S. universities such as Harvard University and Yale is a waste of money, a new book asserts.

"Higher Education? How Colleges Are Wasting Our Money And Failing Our Kids - And What We Can Do About It," urges parents and students to consider colleges that spend on teaching instead of sports and which encourage faculty to interact with students instead of doing research, taking sabbaticals and sitting on campus committees.

"Undergraduates are being neglected," author Andrew Hacker, who co-wrote the book with Claudia Dreifus, told Reuters in an interview.

"Higher education has become the preserve of professors ... (who) really have lost contact with the main purpose of higher education, which is the education of students."

Hacker and Dreifus are critical of many U.S. universities, noting the cost of a 4-year degree has doubled in real dollars compared to a generation ago. But education, they say, has not become twice as good as many colleges lost their focus.

Many Ivy League professors don't teach undergraduates at all and at many colleges teaching is largely farmed out to low-cost adjunct teachers, Hacker said.

And, he said, many undergraduate degrees are vocational -- from resort management to fashion merchandising -- and vast sums of money have been spent on deluxe dining and dorm facilities and state-of-the-art sports centers. As the number of administrative staff has risen, he said, $1 million annual salaries for college presidents have become common place.

"Bachelor's level vocational education is, I don't want to say a fraud, but close to it," Hacker said.

"Undergraduate business classes ... are just a charade; 19-year-olds play as if they are chief executives of General Electric. It is a waste of time and money."

POULTRY AND CERAMICS

Among the examples of unnecessarily vocational degrees listed in the book -- due to be published on August 3 -- are ornamental horticulture, poultry science and ceramic engineering.

"All undergraduate education should be a liberal arts education where you think about the enduring ideas and issues of the human condition," Hacker said. "After that, go on to law school or study dentistry -- you have plenty of time."

Hacker said the high price of tuition often has little to do with teaching.

"Prices got to where they are because both universities and administrators spent like drunken sailors," Hacker said, noting Ivy League graduates often have average careers.

As well as drawing on their experience -- both teach in New York, Hacker at Queens College and Dreifus at Columbia University -- the pair, who are also domestic partners, traveled across America to find the best and worst colleges.

They list 10 colleges they like, where teaching is the priority and where students get value for money. No Ivy League college makes their list.

They recommend Arizona State University for its vibrancy and Kentucky's Berea College for its free tuition and 10-1 student-faculty ratio. They praise Notre Dame for promoting concern for the common good and Massachusetts Institute of Technology for treating part-time teaching staff well.

The book recommends colleges focus on education and strip away sports programs, trim bloated administrative budgets and spin off research and medical facilities. The authors say tenure should be abolished, that there should be fewer sabbaticals and that more attention should be paid to getting students intellectually engaged.

Hacker said the tragedy of U.S. universities is how many graduates now have six-figure loans, doled out with little regard to the students' ability to repay them.

"This is not only unique to the United States but it is new. Ten years ago students were not taking out loans this way," Hacker said, predicting a high rate of default among student loans in the coming years.

Hacker said that to keep costs down, many Americans should consider attending a college close to home to avoid paying as much as $30,000 annually for out-of-state living expenses

Umno controls the minds of the Malays

PETALING JAYA: Umno, being the largest political party in the country which has ruled over the last 50 years, has poisoned the minds of the Malays, feeding them lies that their position is under threat from the non-Malays, former health minister and MCA vice-president Chua Jui Meng said.

"All these years Umno has brought about this propaganda that the Malays were under threat. They try to control the hearts and minds of the Malays, telling them that the advancement of other races would make them poor. This propaganda to poison the minds of the Malays has resulted in the Malays not being able to see the true picture.

"The problem is not the other races but Umno itself. This message is important for all Malays in Malaysia. They must be aware of the truth. We have to break their mindset,” he said in an exclusive interview with FMT recently.

He was quick to add that the Malays in urban areas were realising the truth of Umno's political game plan. However, he said, the Malays in the outskirts, such as in his home state of Johor, still had the orthodox mentality that Umno was Malay and Malay is Umno.

“This kind of propaganda poisons the minds of the Malays," said the 67-year-old lawyer-turned- politician.

He added that access to the new media as well as a paradign shift in the mindset of the urban Malays would enable them to break away from the Umno mentality.

He stressed that Pakatan Rakyat should aspire to bring about the change in the mindset of rural Malays in order to see a change in the country.

"I have told (Opposition leader) Anwar (Ibrahim) that I am a Chinese leader in Pakatan wanting to help poor Malays. My heart goes out to them... we need to help these Malays.

“In Johor, there is a huge information gap. We have to narrow this gap. After 50 years in power, Umno is still spreading lies to the people through the mainstream media which is under Umno control,” he said.

Chua, however, said that Pakatan should not be only concentrating on uplifting the Malay community's economic status.

"We tend to forget other races. Like the Indians, they too have problems. Even when they are citizens of this country, their rights are denied. This is the way of Umno," said Chua, who was in MCA for 35 years before deciding to join PKR late last year.

Plans for Johor

Asked on his plans for Johor as the new state PKR chief, he said he was not a novice in politics and knows the ways of the BN from a political perspective, which uses the mainstream media to win votes.

He said since joining the opposition front, he had become more open to the alternative media.

He said on the part of the Chinese, the community had repented and now had an open mindset knowing that they could live in this country without being dependent on Umno.

"The Chinese community works hard and are smart. Their priority is education... although they only receive minimal assistance from Umno, they don't give up. When they are educated, they can be critical and analytical in the way they think," said the veteran politician.

He also revealed that there was no racial issue in Malaysia, although Umno insists on racialising each and every issue that crops up.

Autonomy for Pattani

I was recently in Pattani, one of three problematic provinces in the southern part of Thailand, when two bombs exploded and killed 10 military officials in Yala and Narathiwat, the other two restive provinces.

Just a few weeks ago another bomb exploded in a mosque in Pattani, killing two people. Bombings and shootings have become almost routine in the region.

As usual, no figure nor organization claimed the responsibility for the attack. Instead of demanding certain purposes, actors of those violence are just trying to terrorize people and to create anarchy.

The Pattani United Liberation Organization (PULO) and Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) are illegitimate to voice insurgents’ aspirations as new groups have emerged and flourished rapidly. The last two bombs, for example, were masterminded by Runda Kumpulan Kecil (RKK), a new group led by Mana Samae.

In response to the increasing incidents, the government has seemed to exercise the same policy as previous attempts to quell the violence, a security approach. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has already ordered the National Security Council (NSC) to take action.

The story might not be different from previous incidents. Military will tighten security control, conduct the revenge attack, and arrest some suspects. Yet, the problem is that the government is less interested in thinking of policies beyond the security approach.

To understand this conflict perfectly, we should not think that rebellions are the only trouble makers that have been creating fear and worry. In contrast, we must put both rebellions and the government as the two actors that have to be responsible with all tragedies in the South.

The killing of hundreds of Malay Muslim for the sake of Thaksin Sinawatra’s drug war and the death of 32 people in historic Krue Zue mosque and 82 in Tak Bai incidents have never been investigated by the government. No military officers are charged if there are any cases of abuses.

Despite a door of hope when Abhisit re-activated the civil-led Southern Border Province Administrative Centre (SBPAC) that is responsible for socio economic development in the region, attempts to bring about peace are not gaining tremendous positive results because the government has not addressed the main issue in the South.

Security, economic, and social issues are indeed necessary. Nevertheless, I observed that people in those three provinces already enjoy robust economic and social life. The average income in the region is higher than in other provinces, such as the North and Northeast provinces.

Then, what do they want? Do they aim to create an independent Islamic kingdom? Some groups, yes. But most people do not care for this idea.

Although almost all women wear veil and men wear sarong, only small minority of them romanticize about an Islamic sultanate. Moreover, it is essential to say that based on my interviews with religious leaders in that conflict area, violence are brought by kaum tuo, Malay-chauvinists and traditionalist Muslims, whose beliefs lie in mysticism and holy readings that are not limited only to the Koran.

At the same time, kaum mudo, who are modernist, revivalist, and Wahhabist Muslims are passive and prefer to work on economic and social activities.

Thus, those who demand independence are dominated and driven more by “Malay factors” than “Islam factors”. Islam is only utilized to legitimize their action. That explains why Muslims in Bangkok and other provinces have less sympathy with the insurgency and enjoy the mutual and harmonic relations with the Thai state.

Unfortunately, current policy refuses to deal with the Malay factor as the main issue. According to a research by Dr. Srisompob Jitirompsri, 83.9 percent of ethnic Malay leaders are in favor of autonomy, rather than the current system.

Bangkok must lift its reluctance to discuss this issue. It has to transform some degrees of political and economic authorities to provinces. Let people set local governments that match their desires, but still under the Thai-state. To ethnic Malays in the South, political decentralization could not only preserve their dignity, but also drag them out of the cycle of violence.

Bangkok politicians need to consider to learn from Indonesia’s experience in delivering political and fiscal autonomy, which contributes tremendously to minimize any attempts to disintegrate.

Although there are still controversies in Aceh with regards to sharia law and in Papua on the widespread of “local corruption”, it is clear that incidents are decreasing and people begin to realize that democracy and autonomy already give them more chance to elect their own leaders, to increase political participation, and to enjoy larger portions of economy.

Autonomy for Pattani

I was recently in Pattani, one of three problematic provinces in the southern part of Thailand, when two bombs exploded and killed 10 military officials in Yala and Narathiwat, the other two restive provinces.

Just a few weeks ago another bomb exploded in a mosque in Pattani, killing two people. Bombings and shootings have become almost routine in the region.

As usual, no figure nor organization claimed the responsibility for the attack. Instead of demanding certain purposes, actors of those violence are just trying to terrorize people and to create anarchy.

The Pattani United Liberation Organization (PULO) and Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) are illegitimate to voice insurgents’ aspirations as new groups have emerged and flourished rapidly. The last two bombs, for example, were masterminded by Runda Kumpulan Kecil (RKK), a new group led by Mana Samae.

In response to the increasing incidents, the government has seemed to exercise the same policy as previous attempts to quell the violence, a security approach. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has already ordered the National Security Council (NSC) to take action.

The story might not be different from previous incidents. Military will tighten security control, conduct the revenge attack, and arrest some suspects. Yet, the problem is that the government is less interested in thinking of policies beyond the security approach.

To understand this conflict perfectly, we should not think that rebellions are the only trouble makers that have been creating fear and worry. In contrast, we must put both rebellions and the government as the two actors that have to be responsible with all tragedies in the South.

The killing of hundreds of Malay Muslim for the sake of Thaksin Sinawatra’s drug war and the death of 32 people in historic Krue Zue mosque and 82 in Tak Bai incidents have never been investigated by the government. No military officers are charged if there are any cases of abuses.

Despite a door of hope when Abhisit re-activated the civil-led Southern Border Province Administrative Centre (SBPAC) that is responsible for socio economic development in the region, attempts to bring about peace are not gaining tremendous positive results because the government has not addressed the main issue in the South.

Security, economic, and social issues are indeed necessary. Nevertheless, I observed that people in those three provinces already enjoy robust economic and social life. The average income in the region is higher than in other provinces, such as the North and Northeast provinces.

Then, what do they want? Do they aim to create an independent Islamic kingdom? Some groups, yes. But most people do not care for this idea.

Although almost all women wear veil and men wear sarong, only small minority of them romanticize about an Islamic sultanate. Moreover, it is essential to say that based on my interviews with religious leaders in that conflict area, violence are brought by kaum tuo, Malay-chauvinists and traditionalist Muslims, whose beliefs lie in mysticism and holy readings that are not limited only to the Koran.

At the same time, kaum mudo, who are modernist, revivalist, and Wahhabist Muslims are passive and prefer to work on economic and social activities.

Thus, those who demand independence are dominated and driven more by “Malay factors” than “Islam factors”. Islam is only utilized to legitimize their action. That explains why Muslims in Bangkok and other provinces have less sympathy with the insurgency and enjoy the mutual and harmonic relations with the Thai state.

Unfortunately, current policy refuses to deal with the Malay factor as the main issue. According to a research by Dr. Srisompob Jitirompsri, 83.9 percent of ethnic Malay leaders are in favor of autonomy, rather than the current system.

Bangkok must lift its reluctance to discuss this issue. It has to transform some degrees of political and economic authorities to provinces. Let people set local governments that match their desires, but still under the Thai-state. To ethnic Malays in the South, political decentralization could not only preserve their dignity, but also drag them out of the cycle of violence.

Bangkok politicians need to consider to learn from Indonesia’s experience in delivering political and fiscal autonomy, which contributes tremendously to minimize any attempts to disintegrate.

Although there are still controversies in Aceh with regards to sharia law and in Papua on the widespread of “local corruption”, it is clear that incidents are decreasing and people begin to realize that democracy and autonomy already give them more chance to elect their own leaders, to increase political participation, and to enjoy larger portions of economy.

Perhentian_KB_TakBai_Narathiwat_Pattani