The public should know that there is rampant corruption in the field of higher education. Most professors in colleges and universities are running the system for themselves rather than for their students or even the country as a whole. They are dishonest with their students and with the public. They discreetly keep the existence of this corruption secret because they know if it became widely known, the public would rise up and demand changes.
More specifically, the corruption involves many different areas of academic life such as:
1. There is an unwritten rule that only people with the highest degree (Ph D) are allowed to publish serious scientific or philosophical work by established publishers. Academic journals and publishers give readers the impression that anyone is allowed to submit manuscripts, but when someone not in the academic establishment actually submits such a manuscript, it is nearly always rejected, regardless of merit, often for spurious reasons. Only the high priests of academia are supposed to publish. The outsider author usually has no way of knowing of this corruption.
2. Professors produce and publish a great mountain of rubbish research each year at a cost of billions of dollars to taxpayers. Much of this "research" is virtually worthless. It is produced mainly to bring in as much government and private grant money as possible and to pad the professor's resumes.
3. In graduate schools, the students are led to believe that they will be allowed to conduct their own
original research for their thesis or dissertation. In fact, graduate students are expected to carry out their professor's research in exchange for a degree. This would not be so bad if the professors were at least honest in this matter. At least then the students would know where they stood. But the professors know that any such admission would result in a public outcry against this exploitation of their students. So they resort instead to deception and hypocrisy.
4. University professors have tremendous power over their students, both undergraduate and graduate. As a result sexual exploitation of students is common. In such situations where one person has such power over another person, a mutual, consensual sexual relationship is impossible even if the student is an adult. A student's grades and even academic career are at stake and many a student dare not risk the displeasure of a professor who approaches them.
5. Most undergraduate courses are not being taught by properly qualified instructors. Universities and colleges publicize in their catalogs the outstanding qualifications of their professors with statements such as "14 members of our faculty have received Nobel prizes". Students and their parents naturally assume that at least some of their teachers will be these distinguished professors. The reality of undergraduate teaching is very different. Most undergraduate courses, especially those of freshmen and sophomores, are not taught by famous professors. Rather they are taught by lowly graduate students who usually have only a BA degree. In truth, most full professors avoid teaching undergraduate classes like the plague. Undergraduates are receiving an inferior education because professors have "better" things to do than teach.
These are just some of the abuses which are rife in academia. It is the old classic story of the "haves" versus the
"have nots". The people in power (the professors) versus everyone else (the students, laymen and taxpayers). The present system is a perversion of what was originally intended.
Students, their parents and the taxpayers in general are being given a false bill of goods. Professors often hide their corruption with high sounding platitudes and academic double talk.
Fundamental changes in the organization of higher education will be required to eliminate these corrupt practices.
This book is intended for students, parents and the general public. The public needs to know how higher education is actually carried out. I have thus not included a lot of references and footnotes in this book. For anyone who wishes a more detailed account of many of these matters, I recommend the following two books, Impostors in the Temple by Martin Anderson (1996) and Prof Scam by Charles J. Sykes (1988).
DDD
Amarillo, Texas
2007
Copyright © 2007 Don D. Davis