The president of the University of Florida is trying to reinvigorate higher education by giving students the skills they need to succeed

Americans are increasingly skeptical about the value of post-secondary education. Canadians should be similarly concerned.

A university degree was long seen as an essential ticket to success, but that is no longer the case. The expense of a college education has increased in inverse proportion to the quality of education. Massive student debt, increasing numbers of under-employed degree holders and the intolerance for basic freedoms on campus combine to degrade the system.

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The embarrassing and morally inept testimony before the United States Congress by three Ivy League presidents, two of whom have since resigned, accentuated this downward trend. Their inability to articulate why antisemitic protests on campus were left unchecked highlighted much of what has gone wrong. Many university leaders have become sycophants to prevailing trends guided by neither ethical nor academic compasses.

Emphasizing money-raising rather than bolstering basic academic principles, many have become limp stewards adopting woke concepts like diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), which stifle free speech and thought. Many humanities courses indoctrinate students with leftist articles of faith and reject contrary views. Instructors too often prefer to teach students what, rather than how, to learn.

Academic standards are diluted as courses expand willy-nilly into esoteric, irrelevant disciplines. When I served as chancellor at Lakehead University, I was struck by the number of sociology graduates, compared to engineering and computer science graduates, and wondered about what job opportunities would be available to them.

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