Leisure College

According to the new "Leisure College, USA" study by the American Enterprise Institute, college students today spend only about fourteen hours per week studying, as opposed to twenty-four hours fifty years ago.  In case you forgot, the recommended number of hours of studying is thirty hours per week.

Looking at the usual suspects for decreased study time, the authors are able to discount a higher percentage of students working, gender demographics, differences in types of institutions (although I did notice that MCU students study the least) and improvements in teaching and information technology.  In the end they express concern that the decreasing level of rigor of college education connected to pressures related to the change to a student as customer mentality are to blame.

One factor that was not mentioned was college as lifestyle.  Look at every movie and television show about college.  In them college is publicly and/or parentally funded time of parties and irresponsibility.  Learning is something that gets in the way of these activities.  Students vote with their choice of college and their course/faculty evaluations.  Faculty and colleges that try to fight the trend only hurt themselves.  As stated in the report;

We are hard-pressed to name any reliable, noninternal reward that instructors receive for maintaining high standards—and the penalties for doing so are clear.

I am not sure if there is a way to turn back the clock on this issue.  Students have told me that because it is grades that matter to them they must avoid faculty who maintain high standards.  One must wonder what an educator dedicated to the mission of higher education is to do.

T.S. Hall