http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/education/edlife/edl-17business-t.html?_r=4&hp=&pagewanted=all snip<from the article> "PAUL M. MASON does not give his business students the same exams he gave 10 or 15 years ago. “Not many of them would pass,” he says." snip<from the article> "According to national surveys, they want to hire 22-year-olds who can write coherently, think creatively and analyze quantitative data, and they’re perfectly happy to hire English or biology majors. Most Ivy League universities and elite liberal arts colleges, in fact, don’t even offer undergraduate business majors. J. David Hunger, the St. John’s fellow, wrote a monograph about the travails of undergraduate business education back in 1978. He has never quite resolved his ambivalent feelings about the field. “At some times in my life, I’ve argued that we don’t really need a business major,” he says." Very interesting read and kind of keeps up in line with the dumbing down of society along with the grade inflation debate (we already solved this one, correct). I'm still digesting this one. C
I do not have an account to read the article but from what you've written, I somewhat if not mostly agree. Surprising since I have an MBA but truth told I use my liberal arts background (the basis for my CJ major) and the people skills I learned working in Criminal Justice every day. I do rely on my business skills as well but without a doubt the ability to speak and write coherently and relate to other people far outweighs my ability to crunch numbers or apply business skills to a given problem. I do not think that business as an academic venture is a waste of time, in fact second to liberal arts I would say business is the single most diverse credential someone could have however, business education is overvalued both in academic circles and in the workplace. I think the liberal arts should be given far more credit than the field currently gets as being able to prepare one for a profession. This is the world we live in…sadly. Education is no longer about learning or broadening your horizons but instead has been relegated to a commodities market and like any commodities market, it is rife with speculation, exploitation, inflation and eventual sharp devaluation. Speaking of which…I hope none of you bought gold recently.
