Original bluer valley rain planet
Hello, i'm blue。
The world's largest news in two days is that an openai can produce 60s of real video sora in just one line to shake the world。
The team behind it has also been exposed, with only 13 people, while the other side, with the impact of a devaluation of artificial intelligence and academic qualifications, has been exacerbated by the already depressed job market。
Not only is it difficult to find jobs, but hundreds of internships have been dropped without response. Even the leading technology companies with the highest job opportunities have seen a major lay-off in the new year。
It's only two months since new year's
Since the birth of chatgpt last year, the concept of education, which has continued from the industrial age, has been subverted -
In the past, education was one of the most important tools in the social hierarchy, with parity between good universities and good jobs。
Today, university students are flying around, their academic qualifications are devalued, and they are cut in by the fast-paced ai. The master delivers the delivery, and the sea mocks the "waste" and doesn't get the tuition back。
Even in the united states, which has the world's best universities, confidence in higher education has fallen sharply from 57 per cent to 36 per cent. Early this year, a figure showed that nearly half of american parents indicated that they were no longer willing to send their children to college, even without financial problems。
"it may be a sign that the popular university model is beginning to collapse."。
In fact, the american sociologist randall collins, in his book diploma society, published in 1979, predicted in a forward-looking manner the "depreciation of education" of today -
As in all currencies, the purchasing power of diplomas decreases when they are increasingly available and have limited jobs, i. E. Diploma inflation。
What happened in 1965, when americans began to believe that there must be a good job in college, and 60 years later, more and more families were reluctant to invest in their education? What's the message for us
The author, collins, is also professor emeritus of the penn department of sociology, and has been republished and translated into many languages since the publication of the book, making it an essential book for understanding the evolution of diplomas
The world's largest and expanding education system
The unesco survey of higher education 2022 shows that, between 2000 and 2020, the number of students in higher education worldwide doubled to nearly 250 million。
It is estimated that by 2030 this number will be close to 300 million。
However, the demands of the labour market on the level of education are rising as more and more people acquire higher education。
It has been found that jobs that can be exchanged for a diploma in education are becoming less affordable。
Unemployment rate of university students in the united states in 2023, by statista
This problem arose in the united states a long time ago。
According to collins, the united states is a knowledge-based post-industrial society with a rich and diverse ethnic group that brings about an active cultural market but also creates the world's largest and expanding education system。
On the basis of geographical and political decentrization, the establishment of schools at all levels has become an important means of inter-ethnic cultural competition, and the culture of specific groups has gradually been transformed into the cultural currency of diplomas。
Figure: proportion of population in industrial countries who completed different levels of education in the early 1960s
So, how did the american diploma in education expand
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the education system in the united states was still in its early stages of development, and teaching was small and simple。
The difference between schools is in the composition of the social class, with low enrolment requirements and no age limit, at which point the educational diploma does not have the added value of society or occupation。
In the first half of the nineteenth century, under the influence of churches, basic models of primary education were established throughout the united states to instil ethics in the general public and to teach basic literacy skills。
In the second half of the nineteenth century, educators also promoted public high schools and compulsory education, based on a similar starting point or educational ideal。
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the unified school district and age-based compulsory education bill had led to a strict alignment of school grades with age, and had resulted in a sequentially upgraded secondary education system。
Data show that about 25 per cent of primary school students in the united states were older than 13 years of age in 1910 and 80 per cent of secondary school students were older than 18 years of age, while in 1950 the proportion decreased to 2. 4 per cent and 4. 2 per cent, respectively。
Universities have also become widespread in the united states, and inter-sectarian competition has contributed to the growth of institutions of higher learning until they face financial difficulties and crises of overdevelopment。
At that time, leaders such as cornell university and harvard university launched an innovative development model from traditional colleges to modern universities。
The school has also undertaken curriculum reform, such as the addition of a more diverse optional system and the development of postgraduate courses, as well as the development of sports competitions and social events within the campus, and the emergence of the fujimaka alliance。
Twelve years of primary and secondary education have become the entry threshold for universities, and the institute of studies has also set entry standards for this level of education. As a result, the vast educational system in the united states was established and the diplomas were shaped for a strong cultural currency。
However, as educational resources become more and more accessible, the diploma currency has depreciated, forcing people to pursue higher levels of education。
Current educational structure in the united states, by the national centre for education statistics
Education does not enhance job skills
As more and more people spend more time advancing their education, it is accompanied by a rise in the demand for education in the labour market。
In the middle of the nineteenth century, most occupations were dominated by traditional apprenticeships and formal schooling was less important for employment. By the late nineteenth century, university education had become indispensable for professionals。
After the first world war, professionals had established strict requirements for higher education and university diplomas had become entry thresholds for some professions。
After the second world war, the traditional elite began to require postgraduate training, physical labour also required high school qualifications and, in some cases, vocational training。
Among the increasingly stringent requirements for education, there seems to be an implication that:
The higher the level of education means the higher the vocational skills, while the vocational diploma is a microcosm of the social hierarchy。
But collins does not think that education can lead to the upgrading of job skills。
First, 85 per cent of the educational advancements of the united states workforce in the twentieth century occurred within the job type, rather than between different skill classes。
In a study of data released by the united states department of labor in 1950 and 1960, it appeared that the level of education in the labour force had risen above the level required for job skills, and that over-education had become a more prominent problem。
In today's work scene, we have a similar experience, and many of our daily work is actually very easy for people with different degrees, and sometimes it's a bit of a waste。
There are also academic requirements for recruitment as a laundry worker, which may indicate that the competition behind it is quite intense
Second, school education does not provide training to develop specific skills or general competencies:
First, employees with a higher level of education are not more productive than those with a lower level of education。
For example, a study of engineers and scientific researchers in the large electronic manufacturing industry found that the average doctoral performance assessment was the highest, but that there were no differences between employees with undergraduate, undergraduate and master's degrees。
Second, specific vocational training appears to be derived mainly from work experience rather than from school training。
Collins mentioned that there is evidence that, at least in the united states, most students have limited access to school。
Many vocational skills may be acquired at work, and many companies retrain their employees, after all there is consensus that academic education lags behind industry development。
In the 1930s, academics tested university students two years later and found that their performance in standardized tests in their fields of specialization had been very low, meaning that the educational results of a given course were not ideal or negligible。
To make matters worse, in order to achieve higher performance points, many students adopt the “minimum effort principle”, which is that more consideration is given to the value of scores rather than to the upgrading of knowledge and skills。
When education first changes, it is not surprising that it deviates from the desired outcome。
According to collins, schooling is more about developing a middle-class culture than teaching academic skills per se, and the main value of degrees is simply to exchange for higher degrees, a process that is often lengthy。
According to the latest oecd data, more than half of the population of appropriate ages in developed countries such as the united states of america and canada have access to higher education
Social stratification with diplomas
Since schooling had little impact on the upgrading of job skills, why did the labour market put so much emphasis on diplomas
In the development of the united states education system, collins has seen an important impact of educational diplomas in the professional sphere — helping specific professional groups to monopolize job opportunities and thereby achieve social stratification。
For prestigious professions, in order to preserve their economic and social status, they restrict the entry of other workers into their own circles through diploma certification and licensing。
In the book, collins, citing medical, legal and engineering examples, describes how these professions bind themselves closely to the educational order of the united states。
The granting of licences is the prerogative of the corresponding colleges, the requirement of a certain level of education prior to taking a vocational examination, and the requirement of years of study and admission requirements, all of which enhance the value and appeal of diplomas。
In the modern world, people may not be able to directly buy the office, but they can buy the work offered by the organizations by investing in education and acquiring the corresponding cultural circulations from schools, i. E. Grades and diplomas。
In particular, collins points out that when the type of education represents the affiliation of a certain status group, which controls the employment of certain organizations, the educational factor is particularly important in finding employment。
A case in point is wall street's elite law firm, which often hires only the graduates of the ivy league of law and selects students who have attended elite preparatory schools and universities。
Research on promotion patterns also shows that a “guaranteer” model prevails in all organizations and that alumni relations have a significant impact on recruitment and internal promotion。
In 2022, the proportion of american graduates entering large law firms
Will you just abolish your diploma
While many see education as a way to break the social hierarchies, collins points to the cruel reality:
Since the mid-19th century, the expansion of the education system has not increased the likelihood of social mobility。
This is supported by a comparative study on central africa, where social mobility declined between generations before and after the establishment of the formal school system。
The income revolution of the twentieth century was less concentrated on the top minority and shifted from the top 10 per cent to two deciles below。
But collins is not optimistic。
He considered that high-income professions created occupational barriers through educational diplomas and that other professions were becoming more specialized, creating an occupational segregation that prevented other groups of people。
Under increasing competition in the workplace, university diplomas are becoming less and less likely to provide people with elite jobs, with some turning to higher-level diplomas and schools becoming temporary refuges for excess labour。
According to the united states national centre for education statistics, enrolment in higher education for the population of appropriate ages increased from 2010 to 2022. In terms of salaries, high school graduates earned approximately $48,017 per annum, while undergraduate graduates amounted to $85,301 and master students to $123,829。
But there is always the day when the rising sequence of education comes to an end, and how should we face an increasingly illusory diploma bubble
Collins' answer is the abolition of diplomas, which also removes diploma barriers in career advancement and gives employees the opportunity to learn different job skills, thereby promoting income equality。
But society is complex, and simple de-certification clearly does not solve the problem。
Collins also saw the resistance behind the abolition of the diploma, and organizational restructuring, income redistribution, job security and so on could not be resolved overnight。
Unfortunately, investing in education appears to be a low-cost strategy。
In an article last year about a couple of college graduates working in a factory, some people said that college degrees were a burden when they were looking for jobs, and the agency made him say he was a middle school graduate
In a recent article published in the triple life weekly, in 2024, the number of candidates for the examination was 360,000 less than the previous year, while the number of candidates for the examination continued to be "heating" and the number of candidates for the national examination passed the 3 million mark for the first time。
Looking back at my decision to continue my studies that year, the motivation of countless parents and children can hardly be said to be entirely out of love for their profession and education, more from confusion and anxiety。
For many, there is always one more bargaining chip for finding a job。
The voluntary removal of the t-shirt from the body, with no regard for the education itself, is much harder for us in the social vortex than collins's proposal。
But after reading this book, i put down my anxiety and stopped blaming myself too hard:
A few decades ago, sociologists told us that it was not that i was not hard or smart enough to get in trouble, but that we were being held hostage by the small individuals who had to move forward。
