University Essay Experts » education

Study Abroad in the US

john — Wed, 11 May 2011 13:43:26 +0000

The quest for education has now become a global enterprise and, for many years, the quest for education meant coming to America. In many ways this dream still exists with many students coming to America to study. It used to be the case that many of these students would remain in the United States after they received their academic training. However, following 9/11 and the US government’s tightening of the H1B visa requirements, only some 65,000 work visas were granted over the past year. What this has meant for the hundreds of thousands of foreign students who come to study in the US is that they are increasingly returning to their home countries and starting important and lucrative businesses there that used to be started in the US. Silicon Valley is a prime example of this trend in which many Indian students that formerly might have remained in the Valley following their graduation from Stanford, UC Berkley or similar, now are returning to New Delhi, Calcutta, or Bangalore and similar locales in India and starting the next Amazon, eBay or Groupon there. This is a good thing for India but a bad thing for the US and soon, many of these students may not even bother coming to the US to study at all.

E-Textbooks & the Ipad

john — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 11:08:12 +0000

Students the world over have come to recognize that they have long been ripped off by the textbook publishing establishment to which the higher education system panders. Thus, the cost of college textbooks has increased geometrically compared to regular inflation and colleges and universities are partly to blame. Higher education institutions regularly require the “most recent” editions of textbooks that the publishing houses have simply reworked by changing the page count, adding some useless fluff, and perhaps re-organizing the chapters. Thus, every year or every couple of years students must continually purchase their textbooks new and some texts can cost over $200 or $300 each! It’s a rip-off—you known it, I know it, the colleges and universities know it and the publishing houses certainly know it. Add on to this the insult of constantly increasing college tuition and we all begin to understand that the higher education system in most developed markets is not about higher education but is about fleecing as many students as possible of their money. One new development that can ease the cost-burden of pursuing higher education is the current electronic textbook initiative that is expanding with the introduction of the iPad and other electronic readers. Electronic textbooks are quite promising not only because they are less expensive that regularly printed college textbooks but because they allow the integration and instant viewing of a multitude of different media such as hyperlinks to websites and other online data sources, video and sound files, and collaborative networks for students. Even more promising is that there are organizations and firms that are beginning to develop open source textbooks and electronic textbooks that are distributed online for free or for reasonable associated printing costs. Open source textbooks may not be fully developed at the moment but it is only a matter of time before they begin to challenge the publishing establishment and colleges and universities should begin to examine these alternatives for their students. Perhaps one of the most promising of all of these developing alternatives to the traditional textbook is business textbooks and other specialties being offered and developed by flatworld KNOWLEDGE. So, investigate these traditional textbook alternatives and complain to your colleges and universities about the high costs of textbooks and of higher education in general.

Sexual Harassment Essays

john — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 21:09:43 +0000

Essays and term papers on sexual harassment in the workplace are often assigned during business related courses as a means to instruct students in areas such as human resources management or HRM, workplace policies and personnel management, among others. Sexual harassment in the workplace is a serious issue and has cost numerous executives and run of the mill employees their positions over the years. Additionally, sexual harassment has also cost many promising employees (mostly women but also some men) their opportunity to advance within a company and to put their talents and capabilities on display. The most recent example of the negative repercussions of sexual harassment in the workplace is a bombshell indeed. Mark Hurd, the savior of HP after Carleton Fiorina was fired as CEO of HP several years ago recently announced that he was resigning as CEO of HP. This just goes to show how irresponsible even the highest level executive can be and Hurd has now ruined a reputation and all the industry respect that he had garnered after stepping into HP’s leadership position and restoring that company’s core values which centered on its engineering, operations and technical innovation. Clearly, business schools and business education needs to do a better job of educating young professionals on just how destructive sexual harassment can be to an organization.

McPhoenix University by The Apollo Group

john — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 16:11:58 +0000

The University of Phoenix is one of the most unethical companies in corporate America, and that is saying something considering that ethics and business seem to be mutually incompatible these days. The University of Phoenix is an online university whose programs have been the subject of much ridicule over the past several years as the university has focused almost purely on enrolment numbers rather than educational delivery. This has led to the University of Phoenix being referred to as the McDonald’s of higher education and an internationally horrible reputation. Because the University of Phoenix is a for-profit institution, it is clear that the ultimate mandate is in generating profits rather than delivering quality education with lasting impact. That the university adheres to this mandate is evident by the number and type of lawsuits that have been filed by the university’s parent corporation, The Apollo Group, such as its recent settlement in which it paid 10s of millions of dollars in order to settle financial aid fraud issues with the Department of Education and the Justice Department. While the settlement allows the University of Phoenix to state that the settlement in no way implies that the company defrauded students and the government by compensating enrollment counselors on a performance basis, among other nefarious practices, no company pays millions of dollars just to placate a few disgruntled students and a government investigation. Simply put, while the University of Phoenix does allow students to obtain degrees, the quality of these degrees conferred by online universities that are purely for-profit enterprises begs the question, just where do students fit into the institutions’ profit equation? The Apollo Group derives the vast majority of its revenues from the U.S. Department of Education’s various financial aid programs and thus this is a company that depends on generating as much student churn as it can in order to constantly renew its revenue stream as students apply for and obtain financial aid and, conveniently enough, the majority of which is retained by the University of Phoenix as revenue. Even from an investment perspective, The Apollo Group is suspect because of the way it books these revenues and its ongoing business practices. The best advise if you have not yet succumbed to the University of Phoenix’ marketing efforts is to pursue your education with a local community college or university that offers a mix of online and on-ground classes. If you are a University of Phoenix student, the best advice is to withdraw and ensure that it does not attempt to bill you for unpaid tuition which it will most likely attempt to do.

College & Twitter

john — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:16:47 +0000

Some professors are finally beginning to see the light. While most colleges and universities and certainly most professors and faculty view technology as a threat, a brave few are promoting it as a means to improve the educational process and make the college or university experience more relevant for students today. An adjunct professor has just begun to incorporate Twitter into his class format by encouraging students in class to tweet notes back and forth which essentially creates another level of dialogue in the classroom. This method also encourages those who would not normally participate to begin to interact with their peers. However, there were of course some objections from the dinosaurs within the educational establishment who consider this strategy to be another opportunity for distraction. Of course, this possibility exists but just because the methodology needs to be improved does not mean that this is not an effective method to adapt, innovate and make more relevant the 21st century classroom.

Military Tuition & GI Bill

john — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 17:51:57 +0000

The military in the United States has seen a huge influx of service members over the past 6 and 7 years and these service members are qualifying for educational assistance with the GI bill and other programs to pay for their higher education after they leave the military. Additionally, the military also pays for school while service members are in the military and this provides an enormous opportunity for military personnel to complete their tours of duty with college degrees or advance training or both. Military personnel and people leaving the military have the opportunity to attend college and university in a way more than at any previous time in the past and there are a host of online tutoring and research companies such as ours and others that can make this transition easier.

Costs of a University Degree

john — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 21:01:39 +0000

One reason that many people find our services so vital to their success is that the costs associated with obtaining a higher education and a university degree have far outpaced inflation and have become so expensive. For instance, one report indicates that the state system in Florida, which is one of the cheapest in the nation, averages $29,410 for a bachelors degree alone when integrating all costs. However, no matter what the actual costs are, obtaining a college degree is now one of the most significant purchases that an individual will make after purchasing a house. Furthermore, with the ongoing economic crisis many states are reducing education budgets while raising the costs of tuition at universities. For example, California just approved a tuition increase of more than 30% which is going to effectively keep many people from obtaining a college degree.

The point we are making is that because college and university educations have become so ridiculously expensive, students have to work part-time, full-time and sometimes two jobs just to pay for school and live while going to school. Additionally, students have to take so much out in student loans while they are attending college or university that they graduate with their degrees with so much debt that many end up right in bankruptcy court. Quite simply the system sucks and CLEARLY colleges and universities are more concerned with their bottom lines and the fat salaries of their administrators than they are the quality of the higher education they produce. Thus, services such as ours can make a student’s life easier while they work and manage such pressures as family, careers, and other important issues.