David W. Kirkpatrick Columnist EdNews.org
Senior Education Fellow U.S. Freedom Foundation

This view was offered by then-president Gerald Ford during an address at Ohio State University in 1974. Just two years before, the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education concluded "more careers should be opened up to demonstrated talent, regardless of formal degrees."

In a separate report, Reform on Campus, the Commission noted that fewer than one-third of graduates begin working in a field directly related to their undergraduate major - as few as 5% in the social sciences. It is also debatable how much knowledge, if any, a degree represents. A U.S. Department of Education study in the 1990s found that more than half of American college graduates can't read a bus schedule. Nor, said U.S. News & World Report in 1997, could more than half "figure out how much change they should get back after putting down $3 to pay for a 60-cent bowl of soup and a $1.95 sandwich." In the event you are in that half, the answer is 45 cents.

Why so much emphasis is placed on something whose value or relevance is questionable is debatable. One reason is that the United States suffers perhaps the world's worst case of "credentialitis." This was highlighted in a commonly known but generally overlooked source - The Wizard of Oz. Millions, perhaps most, of Americans have seen the movie adaption of Frank Baum's classic. In it the Scarecrow was greatly concerned that he didn't have a brain. In due time, the Wizard informed him that he had as good a brain as anyone else. His problem was that he didn't have a proper credential. The Wizard thereupon presented him with a diploma following which the Scarecrow started quoting mathematical formulae and was recognized by others as a very wise fellow indeed.

Which still doesn't explain an obsession with credentials almost unique to this society. Again citing the Carnegie Commission, the United States currently offers more than 1600 types of earned degrees, far more than European nations. This includes nearly 700 bachelor's degrees, 600 master's degrees and more than 100 doctorates, plus an increasing number of associate degrees as community colleges grow in number. Over the past 300 years or so, there have been nearly 2500 different earned degrees and 235 or so honorary degrees. And this doesn't include thousands of diplomas, certificates, and other miscellany.

We not only offer a greater variety of degrees, we require more time be spent acquiring them. In Europe, bachelor degrees are commonly earned in two or three years. Here, with some exceptions, four is standard. Historian Henry Steele Commager said in 1976 that colleges here should adopt the two or three year standard.

Martin Meyerson holds that "the notion that a degree should be awarded for a fixed number of years of attendance or a collection of semester hours is nonsense; it ought to be a mark of achievement and not of perseverance alone." Theodore R. Sizer agrees. In Horace's Compromise, he said awarding a diploma based on mastery rather than total attendance time, or a collection of credits, would have a dramatic effect on student behavior. Most blunt is K. Patricia Cross who has written ‘That every major field in present and undergraduate colleges should find its optimal organization in a four-year time span seems absurd."

Absurd indeed. And we do know how this happened. In the 1600s a four year curriculum was fairly common in Europe's relatively few higher education institutions. Then Harvard was founded. They did the easy thing and copied the European pattern. As other colonial colleges came into existence, they copied the Harvard plan. So, like Topsy, the four-year baccalaureate just growed. Everyone conveniently ignored that Europe was moving to shorter time periods.

To top it off, K. Patricia Cross adds "that the admission office has more influence over the quality of the graduating class than instructional faculty have." Or, as someone has said, to be accepted at Harvard a student must first prove they are qualified to graduate.

To truly revolutionize education, the nation should fully enforce the 1971 U.S. Supreme Court Griggs decision which ruled that "if...an employment practice...cannot be shown to be related to job performance, it is prohibited."

Many (most?) credentials fail that test.

"Why can't the universities of Americas open their doors wide to working men and women, not only as students but as teachers? Practical problem-solvers can contribute much to education, whether or not they hold degrees. The fact of the matter is that education is being strangled–by degrees." Pres. Gerald Ford, Ohio State University address, p. 11, Washington Monitor, Sept. 9, 1974.