The majority of Americans believe getting educated once is not enough. The attitude about lifelong education is just one of the findings of a national survey conducted by Washington State University's Social and Economic Sciences Research Center.
The center's director, Don A. Dillman, briefed representatives of Mississippi's institutions of higher learning about the study's findings at a Nov. 1 symposium on the Mississippi State campus.
"The majority of those surveyed believe lifelong training is important," Dillman said. "The increasingly common decision to get additional education reflects the pressure of working in a knowledge-based economy."
The survey conducted by Dillman and his associates was a random telephone sample of Americans about what they want from institutions of higher education. A total of 1,124 adults responded to the 110-question survey.
"We asked about behavior, what people have done or plan to do," Dillman said.
The Washington State researcher noted that there were some surprises from the survey, including the finding that 75 percent of those surveyed said they are interested in taking college courses for additional job training. Respondents in the 40- to 49-year-old age group with college degrees indicated they feel the most pressure to get additional work-related training.
The survey showed a preference for traditional classroom training, although 72 percent of those surveyed said colleges should add more distance-learning opportunities, such as providing video training at off-campus locations.
"One of the survey's major findings was that no single educational approach will make lifelong education available to all who seek it," explained Dillman.
Those surveyed were asked how they would distribute $100 of state tax money to educational services beyond high school. Respondents said that on average, they would spend $45 on teaching students on-campus, $30 on providing off-campus education and technical help, and $25 on doing research.
"The relative distribution of funds among these three functions was consistent regardless of respondent age, education, region of the country, income, or ethnicity," Dillman said.
He also noted that how well the nation's institutions of higher learning handle lifelong education will determine how well the United States will compete with other nations in the future.
"Universities need to guard against deciding that they are in the business of running a campus, not in the business of providing education," he concluded.
This World Wide Web version of MSU Memo was modified and updated by Chris Brown.
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Last modified: Friday, 14-Jun-2002 15:58:59 CDT.
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