Headmaster's Thoughts: July 2022

7/31/2022

In many lists of top international undergraduate universities, my university, Oxford, ranks in the top three. This includes rankings by American based institutions. In the QS World university rankings (who is “QS”?), Oxford ranks second to MIT. In the U.S. News and World Report, it is number three after Stanford, and then UC Berkeley. In the Times Higher Education ranking, Oxford is number one. The reason I am giving you this statistic is not just for pride in a place I attended but, primarily, to note that virtually all of Oxford’s undergraduate degrees take only three years. Apart from the Classic Greats; a hallowed if slightly dated course, Oxford undergraduate degrees are only three years long. So why do American degrees, apparently considered lower on these rankings (and you may note that Harvard and Yale did not appear) take four years to complete? Since Oxford is the only university to come in all three rankings as one of the top three, that indicates excellence. Hooray! Why be modest?

The prime reason for the three-year British Bachelor’s degree, is that you really only study one subject. At Oxford I “read” law. So be it Geography, or English, or Physics, most undergraduates will just study that. I have to admit that there are two hybrid undergraduate degrees at Oxford, the most famous being “Philosophy, Politics and Economics”. But the vast majority of students study just the one subject that they “read”. It is true, that most British students have started to focus on Science or Arts during eleventh grade. So, of course, it is a different system. But still, only three years for a B.A.? Why do American colleges require, in so many cases, four years for the undergraduate Bachelor’s degree?

In the United States, the usual undergraduate degree is 120 credits. I do not know why, but that seems to be the gold standard. It is true that you can do an American college degree in three years, (Both my twin daughters did) but that involves AP courses and summer school. The regular student is not only stuck with four years but, in some state and city schools, preference in enrolling in limited class size courses is given to third and fourth year students. So it may take two years to get into a required course, and then the student is forced to take four and a half or five years to accomplish all the requirements. State schools in California are particularly notorious for this.

Back to the British example. The rationale for studying one subject is that the student there knows what they want to “read”. Note, not “major” because there is no “minor”. You can sit in on courses in virtually anything you want, but you only take exams in the subject you are studying. No minors! No “puff” courses. Three years! Makes a lot of sense to me.

Could it be, (be still my heart!) that American Universities want to keep students for four years for the extra year of tuition? The money? Are we so desperate that they do not want our young people to join the workforce? Are Americans less mature than their European counterparts? I have been a Head of a school in New York City for 53 years; they are not. And for most families, four years is an expensive proposition. Take one fourth off…happiness. (I sound like Mr. Micawber!)

If you want to do more work in your subject in England, you can, if you have a good enough first degree, take a graduate degree in the subject. Hence my peculiarly titled Bachelor of Civil Law (B.C.L.) which was my fourth year. You could look up what it is; nothing more than a further year of studying law. Considering that an American law degree is only three years, one could argue that the opportunity to understand law, if one takes that fourth-year option, is greater in the UK. It is true that at no time during my four years at Oxford, did I study any other subject than law. I did the Philosophy of Law (called “Jurisprudence” which includes Ethics), the History of Law, and the Comparison of Laws (with a strong emphasis on Roman Law but also including Modern International Law), but nothing else. No minimum English or Math requirement, no artistic expression or Physical Education. Nothing but my subject. Why not in the United States? When was the last time you non-scientists used more math than you learned at High School?

When my wife, Jayme, was at Barnard College, you could not get a degree from Columbia University (then all-male) without swimming a length of the pool. I doubt if that is still true, but one wonders what swimming had to do with their academic degree? I throw this in for interest, not that it particularly advances my thesis, except that few stood up and challenged the status quo. That is what I am encouraging us all to do.

And now for a moment of honesty. If you look at my qualifications, you will see that I have an M.A. from Oxford. Well, that is bestowed automatically two years (or later) after you have received your B.A.—but only if you pay the university ten guineas (at least that is how much it cost in my day). That is about 15 dollars. Yes, folks, that is how much my Master’s of Arts is worth. No study; just money. It seemed like a good deal at the time (and still does…at least until I tell you the truth).

If COVID proved anything, it is that Universities can offer courses online. Maybe a way to introduce three-year degrees is to have one year doing courses online and only three at the site of the college itself. But, that would involve less money for board and lodging. And can one, in good conscience, charge as much for a virtual videotape as a physical presence by the professor? As to the latter, in some New Jersey Community Colleges, and I am thinking of one which I researched, the average professor’s yearly salary is just under thirty thousand a year. Only possible because eighty per cent of their “professors”, with Masters or Doctorates, are adjuncts earning very, very little. How much more salary these PhD’s would make teaching High School!

There was a recent uproar when Stanford advertised for an adjunct professorship (PhD required) who would be paid (drum roll please) NOTHING! Stanford University thought the prestige of teaching there alone would attract candidates. They were right. It did, but the publicity forced them to backtrack and offer “something”. Do you want to spend over sixty thousand dollars a year to have your child take courses from someone who is being paid nothing to give them?

So I apologize if I overstress pride in my own Alma Mater, but if Oxford is ranked so highly in giving undergraduate degrees in three years, it would seem to me that American Colleges could do the same. In actual fact, it gets worse thereafter. In Britain, a PhD takes three years to complete (Oxford calls them D.Phils. because, if you look at Oxford degrees they are written in English while US degrees are inevitably, and pompously, written in Latin). Quite differently, US Colleges have course requirements for a PhD (In Britain it is only a thesis) and consequently take four to seven years normally to complete. And yet both degrees are equally prestigious (and, dare I say, in many cases, the Oxford one is more highly valued).

So, I am all for Advanced Placement courses, if that would shorten the years at the undergraduate level here in the States. But many colleges are now backing away from fully recognizing that a student with AP credits can shorten their study by a year. Their argument is that a complete undergraduate experience can only be accomplished in four years. I can see their point from a fiscal point of view (you think?), but not from an intellectual perspective, particularly with the rise of graduate enrollment in business programs, and other professional studies.

Let me end with hope that reform will come. The 120-credit course requirement is a tradition that could be broken by substituting a 90 credit course requirement. Master’s and Bachelor programs could be combined. Summer internships could count towards credits earned. There are many ways to solve this issue if the focus is academics. I merely raise the question: Why not?

Ronald P. Stewart. B.A. M.A.(about $15) B.C.L. (Oxford)

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