Combatting commodification with student cohorts, community-building: Opinion

The commodification of higher education has detracted from the real goal of higher education: intellectual and personal growth and discovery, writes Steven Mintz. Mintz argues that institutions should prioritize providing a transformational, relationship-rich education and offers some suggestions on how to do so. The author recommends that institutions empower individual faculty members to organize themed student cohorts that reflect a wide variety of interests and recognize active participation in these cohorts on transcripts with a special designation. Mintz also writes that students should be given more opportunities to build relationships with faculty and encourages institutions to showcase undergraduates’ research and creative achievements. Such community building initiatives can help combat the commoditization of higher education, writes Mintz. Inside Higher Ed (Acct. Req.) Note: Archived stories may contain dead links or be missing source links.