Will a Three-Year Degree Become a Reality?
The high cost of a college education, combined with the growing number of career-focused students, has propelled some academics and institutions to explore the plausibility of an alternative three-year degree.
The traditional four-year baccalaureate is firmly entrenched in the culture, and not without reason. Between accreditation, athletic programs, graduate school requirements, and the social and psychological implications of spending four years on a college campus, institutions and students may not warm to such a radical departure from the four-year norm.
Some colleges have already tried a three-year option, usually requiring students to take heavy loads and attend summer sessions. However, that method has failed. That’s one of the reasons those exploring this new alternative say they would not try to squeeze the standard four-year curriculum into three, which deprives students of breaks and creates high stress. Instead, this new option would reimagine students’ course of studies to fit into three years and would factor in the standard semester and summer breaks.
Many hurdles exist, including sidestepping the centuries old Carnegie Unit system, which requires students to complete 120-credit hours. However, as the cost of obtaining a college degree continues to increase, some students—especially those anxious to enter a specific vocation—would welcome an alternative. The three-year degree may not be for everyone, but it would offer some students an attractive option.
Source: Whitford, E. (2021, November 9.) A new push to create a 3-year degree option. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com
Employers Are Watching Workers Remotely
With so many employees working from home, employers anxious to promote network security and keep productivity high are secretly monitoring their staff’s online activity.
The monitoring software can “watch” employees in a variety of ways including the following:
- tracking time spent on a company computer to identify overworking or idle time
- logging keystrokes to check on non-productive behavior
- monitoring activity on websites, e-mail, or apps
- taking screenshots of a computer at varying times to provide a record of an employee’s workday
- activating webcams
While the practice is certainly intrusive, employees using company devices have little recourse to the practice other than quitting.
Source: Lee, D. (2021, November 16.) How your employer can keep track of your work at home. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from https://www.latimes.com
Women Workers Shun Deadline Extensions, Men Don’t
Between negotiating childcare and accepting more administrative chores on the job, working women have been especially burdened during the pandemic. This situation has led to nearly one-fourth of female workers to consider leaving their jobs, compared to 13 percent of men. According to research from Harvard Business School, one cause is that women do not request deadline adjustments, unlike their male counterparts.
Harvard researchers found that women feel “less comfortable” asking for deadline extensions because they do not want to be viewed as incompetent. They also do not want to burden others with such requests.
This dynamic jeopardizes women’s career trajectories and negatively affects the companies for which these women work. Retaining quality employees during the COVID-19 pandemic has become a problem for organizations across the board.
Source: Whillans, A. and Donnelly, G. (2021, October 30.) How men and women treat deadlines in the workplace differently. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from https://wsj.com
