McDonaldnization of higher education in the country and other parts of the world is not news today. The term ‘McDonaldnization’ of university education today is metaphoric. It symbolizes the unethical practices in the modern universities. George Ritzer uses the words McUniversity and McDonaldnization symbolic to indicate the malpractices and unethical methods of managing and handling higher education in the country. By McUniversity, Ritzer implies that the modern higher learning institutions in the country focus less on quality of education and give more emphasis on things that do not improve the knowledge levels of graduates coming out of university (Ritzer, 63). In lay language, one could also say that the universities are producing half-backed graduates. One question that Ritzer seeks to address is the dwindling quality of university education and means of service delivery in higher learning institution. However, from personal experiences, efficiency is modern higher learning education does not meet the desired levels.
When talking about efficiency, it is important to make clear that one has to see it from two angles, efficiency that improves the quality of learners, and efficiency that improves the quality of service delivery (Hayes and Wynyard, 123). What happens in modern higher learning institutions does not focus on any of the two areas. Learners need to leave university better than they were when they first got their admission into the schools. The mode of delivering services to the students should also aid easy skills development and increase the quality of knowledge. Many schools today are doing businesses with the sole aim of making money, as opposed to improving the quality of students by equipping them with skills and ideas that can help them change the world. Today, many students go to the university but they can hardly apply the knowledge they acquire in their lives. As a result, higher education is increasingly becoming valueless.
From a personal point of view, modern universities deny students the practical skills by mainly concentrating on bookish ideas and theoretical skills. For efficiency to exist, schools need to create a balance between practical and theoretical knowledge (Berg and Seeber, 89). Engineering students, for example should be allowed to do work that is more practical because theirs is to create machines, generate new technologies, and find out ways that human beings can use to improve communication, transport, and other essential things in life. The problem comes in when schools focus more on the theories in the books that do little in real life application. This has been one of the undoing in higher education, because students are fed with more theories and less practical work to the point that when the time for graduation comes and they go in the job market, finding employment becomes a problem because they can apply what they learned.
Examination and testing of students in universities is also inefficient. As a student, I do examples that only test my content mastery as opposed to practical application of the knowledge in real life (Webber and Bezanson, 126). Schools and teachers are more concerned with the grades more than they are interested in students’ ability to use and apply the skills in real life. My idea about the method that should be used to test students is that it should focus more on practical skills and less on the bookish ideas. In life, no one wants to know what the theory of investment says, what many people are concerned with is the ability to apply the theory. After every topic, students should be tested on their mastery of the theoretical work, as well as practical application of the ideas and lessons taught. This would improve the quality and efficiency of higher education in Universities.
- Berg, Maggie, and Barbara K. Seeber. The Slow Professor: Challenging the Culture of Speed in the Academy. , 2016. Print.
- Hayes, Dennis, and Robin Wynyard. The Mcdonaldization of Higher Education. Westport, Conn: Bergin & Garvey, 2012. Print.
- Ritzer, George. The Mcdonaldization of Society. 2014. Internet resource.
- Webber, Michelle, and Kate Bezanson. Rethinking Society in the 21st Century: Critical Readings in Sociology. Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press, 2012. Print.
