Student Fees of the McDonaldisation of Higher Education

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McDonaldisation is an expression used by sociologist George Ritzer that compares the change in culture to that of a fast-food joint. This concept argues that higher education has ceased from being knowledge-oriented but has become materialistic. This paper focuses on the changes that have contributed to the sudden change of mission and examines the statement, Student fees are the natural and logical conclusion of the McDonaldisation of higher education.

McDonalds is a famous restaurant in the US, but in this context, it has been used to explain how the higher education sector has been transformed to act like McDonalds. Macdonald (2002, p.21) argues that before the emergence of changes in education, institutions of higher learning enjoyed a monopoly. Still, the new trends have forced governments to gauge the quality of education provided by institutions of higher learning, and those that do not comply with the set standards are closed down.

The above-stated move was vital because previously, some institutions were offering low-quality education because they were only interested in making profits; thus, the students who graduated from such institutions were incompetent at their workplaces. Back in those days, it was easier for governments to monitor the institutions of higher learning because the human population was still low in most nations.

This was due to the traditional notion of liberal education, in which learning was driven by the quality and knowledge gained by learners. Nowadays, people have increased in their numbers; hence learning institutions have also flooded the education sector. Institutions have mushroomed in a bid to gain from the sudden demand for education, but then the quality of education offered by most of them is not satisfactory (Richards, 2007, p.51).

Before the recent reforms in education, certificates and diplomas were highly valued, but they seem to have lost their value owing to the increase in population; hence employers raised the qualifications. Thus, applicants who possessed lower qualifications, such as diplomas, had to pursue degrees to compete with others in the job market.

It has been only a few years down the line, and now even those who have degrees cant get jobs because, in some countries, everyone has a degree. This drives people to look for efficient ways of obtaining education without considering the quality of education.

According to Ritzer (2010, p.153), nowadays, people are not seeking higher education to get employed in their area of specialization because when the students graduate from universities and technical colleges, they take the jobs that are available as long as they can fit in those professions. Besides, countries that have stable economies are hunting professionals from countries such as India because their governments are aware that they need highly educated professionals to work for them to achieve their national goals.

Before the rationalization, institutions of higher learning were very strict when it came to matters concerning enrolment. Today that strictness is history because students who did not acquire the minimum grades are allowed to undertake a bridging course so that they can be enrolled in universities and colleges.

According to Ritzers argument, education has embraced technology, which in return has enhanced education. Nowadays, learners dont have to commute to colleges and universities because governments have introduced distance learning, which uses the internet to teach learners from all over the world.

This is called efficiency because by employing information technology, we are using few resources to achieve more results. In distance learning, classes are held virtually, and this feature helps to reduce the governments expenses that would have been spent to construct colleges and universities. In this context, learning is at the convenience of the learner because the exams are marked using computer programs, which can never be manipulated like humans; hence the learners achieve the results that they deserve.

In the future, we are most likely to see a few physical classes because most of them will be absorbed by distance learning. Moreover, books are being faced out, and electronic books are replacing them, and this technology was meant to foster education. This is due to the advent of Internet technologies (Ritzer, 2010, p.160)

The reforms in education have brought about uniformity such that the school that one attends does not matter in the end but the examiner. This has led to the establishment of examination bodies that are recognized in most parts of the world. These include Microsoft certifications, which are highly regarded in most parts of the world. When common examination bodies were introduced, they were to ensure that students from different countries obtained certificates that are recognized; thus, they can seek employment outside their countries.

McDonaldisation seems to be an indicator of the completion of rationalization in higher education. Shepard (2010, p.360) explains that most governments are aware that they can strive in the economy when their people are learned. Thus, of late governments have been persuading private investors to establish tertiary colleges and universities to absorb students from secondary schools.

These private institutions are supposed to be independent of the government, unlike public institutions that are managed and funded by the government. Most learners prefer public institutions because they are relatively cheap compared to expensive private institutions. Richards (2007, p.38) argues that these institutions have the mandate of setting their exams and as well as having a specific timeframe that a course should last. Time here is determined on the number of subjects to be covered in the course outline.

Curriculums of colleges and universities have been reviewed to ensure that they contain the most relevant subjects. This is because of some institutions award diplomas after a very short duration of learning sometimes below six months, which makes one wonder whether the student finished the subjects that are taught in that particular course. In other words, that is seen as unfair competition because learners will go for institutions that take the shortest time to issue them academic certificates, hence McDonaldisation.

The institutions are entitled to limiting the number of students they can take in their programs because if they dont, they may enroll many students than the facilities they have, which could make them become overwhelmed. In the end, they may not perform as expected. But for institutions that employ distance learning, this issue does not affect them because their classes are virtual; hence they dont experience congestion.

In some institutions, the students are forced to squeeze themselves for all of them to be accommodated in the same institution. That is where you find several students sharing a single cubicle Enrollment into the higher education system is another problem which has continued to persist.

In most cases, the selection criteria have been biased because the minimum points for students who hail from marginalized areas should be lower, and they should be allocated more seats because they dont have an alternative, unlike their counterparts who reside in urban centers. This is because their schools are not well equipped like the ones in urban centers, and again they are perceived to be the future elites who can use their skills to develop those areas (Ritzer, 2010, p.16).

In conclusion, student fees are the natural and logical conclusion of the McDonaldisation of higher education because getting faster and efficient education depends on the number of fees paid. Besides, the institutions are responsible for choosing the programs that can be taught in their institutions. Still, these depend on their facilities because different programs require different facilities, especially technical programs such as engineering programs.

On the other hand, courses that are based on theory require few facilities. McDonaldisation leads to competitiveness in the education sector at the expense of quality as compared to liberal education but, at the same time, improving efficiency. Therefore, governments should set regulatory standards in higher learning, be it distant learning or normal classroom education. This will ensure that students are provided with broad knowledge in the areas of specification.

Reference List

Macdonald, R. and Wisdom, J., 2002. Academic & Educational Development: Research Evaluation & changing practice in India. New Delhi: Kogan Page.

Richards, B. P., 2007. Global Issues in Higher Education. New York: Nova Science Publishers.

Ritzer, G., 2010. McDonaldization: The Reader. California: Pine Forge Press.

Shepard, M. J., 2010. Sociology. 10th Ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

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Student Fees of the McDonaldisation of Higher Education

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