The Problem With a Business Degree

Richard Arum, one of the co-authors of the Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses, rips the academic quality of most business degrees.  Here is just a small taste:

Business-related fields account for slightly over 20 percent of all undergraduate degrees in the United States, the most popular field of study. But the quality of that education is facing growing scrutiny and criticism, as detailed in an article by David Glenn in the Education Life section of The Times as part of a joint project with The Chronicle of Higher Education. A recent study found that undergraduate business majors study less than other students, and lag behind in assessments of critical thinking and writing skills — scoring lower than students in education and communications, and well behind liberal arts majors.

Is it worth majoring in business, particularly in the so-called softer fields like marketing and human resources? 

And here is one more taste:

We found that students concentrating in business related coursework were the least likely to report spending time studying and preparing for class. If one considers simply hours spent studying alone, undergraduates concentrating in business coursework invest less than one hour a day in such pursuits. Given such modest investments in academic activities, it is not surprising that business students show the lowest gains on measures of critical thinking, complex reasoning and written communication. The implication of these troubling patterns, however, goes well beyond these particular types of programs.

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