Academic Inflation

Sir Ken Robinson, a famous TED: Ideas Worth Spreading speaker, discusses how academic inflation has degraded the value of a college degree.

What is academic inflation? This term refers to how, twenty years ago, a bachelor's degree assured a college graduate a well-paying, respectable occupation. In today's academic market, however, the jobs that once took a bachelor's degree now take a master's degree, and the jobs that required a master's degree now demand a Ph.D. It is a shift in the educational requirement of most jobs.

Academic inflation is the wrong kind of inflation the economy needs in today's spiraling market. In order to qualify for most trained positions, students require a minimum of an associate's degree; apprenticeships have long become a practice of the past. The joke is, "Do we need a master's degree for hairdressing?" Academic inflation is something you need to keep in mind when starting your studies, because it forces college students to either:

• Pursue a higher level of education, such as an M.B.A; or
  
• Be consciously aware of the fields in need of employees in today's market to avoid overlapping applicants for competitive positions.

Academic inflation ensures that no matter what your resume brings to the table, if there is someone applying for that position with a degree higher than yours, you could be cast into the over-achieving shadow.

Another issue found in academic inflation beyond the high employment rate combined with the "everyone has a bachelor degree" mentality is the value of the GPA or grade point average, also known as grade inflation. Grade inflation refers to how more universities are graduating students in honor societies than ever before, which devalues the mark of an honor society on the graduate's degree.

Do not let academic inflation discourage you, however. Academic inflation should not deter a prospective college student from pursuing their higher education; rather, it should stress how important a degree is in today's market. If bachelor degrees are in abundance, what happens to the high school graduate that tries to pursue the same position? Academic inflation is not meant to be a discouragement, but an awareness, to make sure that college students do that little extra to stand out from other graduates like studying abroad or taking up an internship.