Perceptions and Promises of the University

Byrne, Phillip

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/3601 Copy

Description

Title

Perceptions and Promises of the University

Author(s)

Byrne, Phillip

Issue Date

2008-02-13

Keyword(s)

• education
• expectations
• ANTH411_F07

Abstract

This research aims to discover if students are receiving what they need out of a university education. I will study how students perceive the idea of university education in relation to relevance to life beyond the university, that is the realm of the so-called “real world.” In essence, I consider what students are getting out of their university educations in comparison to what higher education is trying to provide. After limited preliminary research, I would hypothesize that today's university education does not truly educate students in areas relevant to their futures. In general, students are learning, but they are not learning what universities and colleges may expect in of a so-called “traditional education.”

Series/Report Name or Number

"ANTH 411: Methods for Sociocultural Anthropology, Prof. Nancy Abelmann. This course introduced students to a variety of ethnographic methods. Students tried their hand at some of these methods through a focused project. I had students think about their semester-long work as ""pilot research""; although they did write up a short paper on their findings (their ""discuss"" section of the database), the culminating assignment was a research proposal in which they envision building on their preliminary findings in a longer/larger project. In the beginning of the semester, students did some warm-up exercises not directly related to their projects (an observation, an analysis of a university document, and an interview) -- some students elected to remove these from their databases while others left them in because of their connection to the final project. Students' ""question"" and ""plan"" sections of the database include multiple entries as I encouraged them to continue to refine these over the course of the semester in dialogue with their own emerging findings. I also asked students to search both the U of I Student Life and Cultures Archives and well as this EUI IDEALS collection to find archives relevant to their pilot/proposed research. All students were asked to ""reflect"" on the research experience and to make ""recommendations"" to the University on the basis of their research findings. The course syllabus is available at: www.eui.uiuc.edu/docs/syllabi/ANTH411F07.doc"

Type of Resource

text

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