How military friendly are America’s colleges and universities?
Here is an interesting article on the Inside Higher Ed Web site describing the particular challenges and needs of adult students who are serving in the military. Note the concerns expressed that, in some cases, these adults learning at a distance from a campus are being charged for parking or for medical care! Clearly not military friendly. Adult-serving institutions avoid these kinds of obvious mistakes. But, also note the special responsibility and challenge facing online institutions in helping students to successfully complete their courses and programs. Much work is being done to improve retention and completion rates.
I am convinced that the issues bulleted at the end of the article as well as the concerns mentioned in the article deserve attention, and efforts like Transparency by Design are intended to provide prospective students, including military members and their families, with information that allows them to better understand what an institution is doing to address these matters. And these types of transparency initiatives will help adult serving institutions to continuously improve how they work with and serve students.
Are you a member of the military? What challenges have you faced in continuing your education? What could colleges and universities be doing better to encourage more military members to earn a degree?
Mike
Share This2 Responses to “How military friendly are America’s colleges and universities?”
Cliff Says:
Doctor, you asked what challenges the military member faces in getting an education. As a retired service member who was on a combat team in the 1980s, I struggled with juggling deployments and going to school. . Many times I was enrolled in the local college and I would be notified of a team deployment. This happened more than once and of course this was before advent internet and the online classroom.
Since that time in the 1980’s I have engaged online learning as part of my growth and embraced this new classroom. This brings into view new challenges. Sadly many brick and mortar colleges and employers have not accepted the online student or graduate. With the many colleges, such as Capella, there are those “traditional” schools who once held their noses when discussing the online student and classroom, now see the benefit and are taping into the virtual world. The online students of today are not “classroom rats”, with responsibilities and are more self-motivated and driven to succeed. This is true with many military personnel. Today’s military person has all the technology and resources to attend class anywhere in the world.
A wide variety of courses and at a cheaper, lower cost classes are the key for the typical G.I. Joe or Jane. Just my view.
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Alphonso Says:
The military, the Army most specifically, does a lot to make resources available to soldiers who want to pursue their education. These options are only as good as the institutions who are willing to provide service. When I was deployed overseas we had the University of Maryland University College and Central Texas College both on our post. They had teachers in person teaching. It was a great opportunity for many people to continue their educations while away from the states. However, people such as myself wanting to pursue graduate studies, only option was to study online.
Outside of deployed environments countless colleges are recruiting miltary students. Most places are willing to significantly drop their tuition rates so that the military benefits will cover all tuition. So there would be no cost (out of pocket) to the service member.
February 25th, 2008 at 6:54 pm