Quality Education continued

I've decided that the best way to start looking at the question is to define what a public university is. So let's start with just "university". After digging through several dictionaries and the Encyclopedia Britannica, as well as various less reputable sources, I've compiled this definition: "An institution of higher learning, with teaching and research facilities, made up of colleges and professional schools, which grants both graduate and undergraduate degrees. 

A "public" university, I've found, is something slightly different depending on where in the world the University is located. This means I need to rephrase my question. So I'm going to change it to: How can you empirically measure the effectiveness of a public university in the United States? 

This leads us to defining exactly what a public university is in the U.S. The landmark document in this case appears to be the Morrill act of 1862, which provided states with Federally owned land to sell in order to fund "... at least one college, where the leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts... in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions in life." 

Certainly not all "public" universities were created as a direct result of this act,  and, it would be a mistake to apply the "leading object" above to every public university. Other public universities, for example, were started as teachers colleges or strictly agricultural schools, and were founded by individual state act, or as the result of private donations to the state. What we can say is that the Morrill act provided the precedent for universities to be governed by the state rather than a private body.

So, this makes my definition "An institution of higher learning, with teaching and research facilities, made up of colleges and professional schools, which grants both graduate and undergraduate degrees, and is governed by the state, and not a private body." But now, based on my definition, I need to determine what the measurable output(s) should be in order to answer my question. 

More on this later, hopefully less than a month this time.

Quality Education

I had an interesting conversation yesterday that brought up the question, "How do you measure the quality of a university?" It's a question that I know has been posed before, and it is important enough that there was a documentary on PBS about the situation, (though unfortunately I missed it). If we analyze some of the common metrics that universities use to measure themselves, we quickly find them to be inappropriate. For example, retention is often a key mark for schools. However, retention measures only the number of students who stay enrolled from one period to another, not how well those students did or the difficultly or appropriateness of their classes. Other often advertised statistics like first term enrollment and incoming student GPA or standardized test scores only reflect the institution's ability to market its self. No matter where we turn, it appears that by using any of the standard measurements, we end up with misleading or irrelevant data. So this leads me to one conclusion: we must be asking the wrong question. 

So what is the right question? As a working start, I was given "How can you empirically measure the effectiveness of a public university?" It's a start, but it leads to other questions. The most glaring is, what is the purpose of a public university? In fact, what is the purpose of a university? More to come, as I try to answer these questions, and possibly come up with more questions. It's going take some research. 

Grad School

It has been pointed out to me that I don't write enough, so I've started this Blog. There were several options, but I chose this format, because it is hosted from a neutral location, is open to the public without need for membership or registration, and is easy to use. I have applied to and been accepted to Graduate School at Purdue University Calumet, and will be pursuing a Master of Science Degree in Technology. What follows is the main part of my purpose statement from my application:

In the past twenty years, information technology has moved from the domain of the ultra-specialized to a commonplace feature of daily life. Because of this integration into all aspects of our society, we must be aware, not only of the benefits technology provides, but also the danger it poses. I believe that it is critical to understand not only the technical means by which both state and non-state actors may execute attacks using information technology, but also the social impact these actions may have, in order to appropriately mitigate and respond.

To this end, I would like to continue my study of information technology, focusing on the methods used to assure the security of data. I would also like to examine the social impact of technology on the global society. I believe that this combined approach to my education will allow me to positively contribute to national security initiatives and provides the potential for contributions to the overall body of knowledge in this area. 

So, basically, I've identified two areas, society and information security, and combined them in the context of "cyber-warfare". What I need however, is a question. What is it that I want to prove, or solve? It's not a question that needs to be answered right away, but it is something I need to think about.