Project 2: Institution Analysis

The Institution of Higher

Education
By: Edward Ou

Institution Establishment History

The first Institution of Higher Education was Harvard

University, which was founded in 1636.

Later on, more schools started to appear, such as

University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, Yale
University, etc.

These schools were all attended by religious, rich white

men, as they only attend to have future leadership
positions (lawyers, officials, etc.)

Attendance was few since people have no use

for these degrees

Institutions Today

In present times, there are thousands of institutions

that have been established across the country

Previously only private schools, there are also

university institutions that are publicly founded and
non-profit, such as USC (private), UCLA(public) and
Brandman University (non-profit)

More majors are created in universities as education

becomes more diversified with different careers that
need this type of education to complete the job

Schools also do not discriminate in accepting different

types of social status, race, sex, etc.

The influence of Institution of Higher

Education in American government

With government influence, the Higher Education Act of 1965 is a law

that deals with financial aid and defining higher education institutions

The basis of their definition of The Institution of Higher Education is:

A school providing a bachelors degree for employment (2 or more years

of learning)

Accepting students with a high school diploma or something of equal

value

Higher education is looked upon in current job market as an essential

asset in ones resume

This degree is a must as one must gain a career with a higher salary

Functionalist Perspective

Getting a college degree is a big accomplishment in society because it

allows a person to get a higher paying job and this results in a better
life

A functionalist perspective would see that education is important and

that the different majors work together in an institution

Durkheim see this as important as education in a society is where

information is passed down

This can be seen as professors teach their students information for their
future careers

Also, connections are made in college as people interact with one another
(student, professor, alumni)

Functionalist Perspective (cont.)

As a collective institution, there are many majors that

make up the school.

These majors are in their respective schools, which are all run by
the university

For example, the College of Arts and Science is where all the
social science majors are located

To ensure equality, affirmative action is used when

accepting the student in a school

This prohibits color, race, religion, etc. discrimination

Conflict Perspective

Presently, there are many social conflict issues with

universities

Conflict perspective sees the social inequality in this

institution as it examines the inequality that people have

For instance some issues are:

The increase in student loans and how students have a hard time paying
them back

The difficulty of finding jobs ( with the students degree demands and
differing salaries)

Public vs. Private universities and their budgets spending per student

Student Loans and the increasing price

of education

As education becomes more and more expensive, student

are borrowing more loans to cover their payments (see image
on right by Income-Based Repayment and Loan Forgiveness: Implications on Student
Loan Debt by Johnston, Roten )

However, the debt they collect continues to grow till the

point they are unable to pay back

As jobs become harder and harder to find, people need to

increase their salary to pay back the loan and the interest
accumulated from the time they are not spent paying

Alternative payment plans are also used by people such as

Incomebased Repayment or the Public Service Loan
Forgiveness

Difficulty Finding Job

As the job market becomes harder to find a job, a

bachelor degree becomes only a decent qualification
in finding a job

More people decide to continue school as more

people can achieve this degree compared the past
(more people aim for a Masters degree or even a
PHD)

Some majors are harder to find a job than others as

more and more people become unemployed with the
lack of people hiring for certain impacted degrees

For instance, this chart from Not All College

Degrees are Created Equal by Carnevale, Cheah
and Strohl illustrates the increase in job
unemployment by major

This connects to student loans because the

competitive job market makes it even harder to pay
back loans

Private vs. Public University

Another social issue is how private and public spend per

student

Private Universities

Funding comes the government and

the student which is why the
tuition is higher
However, private universities have
more resources, can afford smaller
sizes, more class choices and
professors

Public Universities

Funding comes from the public (the

government, the federal
government, the citizens of the
state the school comes from) which
is why tuition is less

However, public universities have

less resources, have bigger class
sizes, less class choices and
teachers are paid less

Overall, graduating students have different resources

as they enter the job market

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

The institution of Higher Learning is very important in society as people

become more knowledgeable overall and have occupations that run the world

They also earn more money and have a better life than those without college
degrees

There are many issues, such as the increase of student loans and competitive
job markets, that makes achieving a degree and job hard

However, as society deals with this issue, I believe that education is

important as there is no other alternative than completing this path for a
better life

Financial aid and a reduction in tuition can remedy the issue of college
payment, but finding a job is the responsibility of the student as this issue is
hard to remedy as more people in society exist and the need for jobs are
filled

Nevertheless, finding alternative jobs or creating new jobs would be a

solution to this issue

Works Cited

"Affirmative Action."Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia(2014): 1p. 1.Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia.
Web. 21 June 2015.

Carnevale, Anthony P., et al. "Hard Times, College Majors, Unemployment And Earnings: Not All College Degrees Are Created
Equal."Georgetown University Center On Education And The Workforce(2012):ERIC. Web. 21 June 2015.

Douglas, M., and John V. Lombardi. "Public and Private: What's the Difference? | InsideHigherEd."Public and Private: What's
the Difference? | InsideHigherEd. N.p., 6 Mar. 2006. Web. 29 June 2015.

"Education Training Voucher."What Is the Definition of an Institution of Higher Education?N.p., n.d. Web. 28 June 2015.

"Harvard University."Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia(2014): 1p. 1.Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia.
Web. 28 June 2015.

Johnston, Jarrod, and Ivan Roten. "Income-Based Repayment And Loan Forgiveness: Implications On Student Loan
Debt."Journal Of Financial Planning28.4 (2015): 24-28.Business Source Elite. Web. 21 June 2015.

Kaufman, Clare. "The History of Higher Education in the United States."Worldwidelearn.com. WorldWideLearn, n.d. Web. 28
June 2015.

"Number of U.S. Colleges and Universities and Degrees Awarded, 2005."Infoplease. Infoplease, 2005. Web. 28 June 2015.

"Theories of Education."Theories of Education. Cliffnotes, n.d. Web. 29 June 2015.

Photo Credits (Works Cited cont.)

Harvard University logo - http://www.harvard.edu/harvard-glance

University of Pennsylvania logo http://

www.upenn.edu/webservices/styleguide/logo.html

Columbia University logo - http://www.columbia.edu/

Brandman University logo - http://www.brandman.edu/

USC logo & Alumni Association logo- http://www.usc.edu/

UCLA logo - http://brand.ucla.edu/brand/digital/logo/