Craig Brandon exposes some of higher ed’s most pressing problems: rising tuition, overconstruction, bloated administrator salaries, and too many administrative positions, which lead to decreased education standards, unsafe party school atmospheres, worthless degrees, and lots of debt. Unfortunately, though, Brandon writes like a sarcastic and angry old millennial-basher who overgeneralizes, repeats a lot of his points, and writes to an audience of worried parents rather than exploring the issues facing college students’ independence from their level. This makes for eye-rolling chapters that leave the reader feeling angry, even though dumbed-down college-student experiences ultimately affect everyone.
Rating:
Where I Got It
Bought online in Summer 2015, years after originally seeing it reviewed in a list of new author releases.
More
Wall Street Journal review (summarizes Brandon’s points more succinctly than the actual book)
Higher Ed review (expands on the party school phenomenon with some solid insights)
Interesting. I went to a school I believe to be a pretty good school, but definitely suffered from overpaid Deans, Vice presidents etc, and underpaid teachers. I think my education suffered, and this would be an interesting read if the point of view was a bit different.
Liked.