The framework draft of the new universities rating system, often referred to as “Obama college rating system”, has just been unveiled. As part of a series of measures, announced by the US President, aiming to make American universities more affordable financially. This article will cast the light on this new measure and its ability to address the high education problems in the US.
With tuition fees sometimes exceeding a whopping $ 60,000 per academic year and students’ debts over $ 1 000 billion, the education costs have become a particularly sensitive issue in United States.
Desiring to make American universities "more affordable", President Barack Obama has announced a series of measures to achieve this goal.
As a part of the plan, the department of education had unveiled the framework draft of a new university rating system aiming to “help families get more for their tuition dollars”. In theory the so called “Obama’s college rating system” will help students and their parents get all the necessary informations about a university by simply typing its name on the internet.
The rating system will be based on criteria like:
The long-awaited draft will also “forces” colleges to do a “better job on holding constant graduating students on time” and help them pay their tuitions. The bill will also compel states to invest in their own public universities.
If this bill is adopted as it is, schools rated low could face financial plenty’s opposed by the federal government.
Of course, “Obama’s college rating system” still counts as framework and not a plan. And official say that they are waiting for feedback by mid-February.
In its current form, the bill is raging debates and is showing some limitations (lake of information about colleges for instance). Even though, the president of the American Council of Education Molly Broad seems to be confident about the usefulness of the future plan. He insisted that it won’t be perfect in its original form but will be in the upcoming versions.
“We’re not going to be perfect in version 1.0, but we do hope that we’ll be able to build on it in successive years.”
If everything works as planned, the new law will help students to know if a college consists a good deal and will help them having a better future in exchange of their tuition money. Still to see if the bill will be adopted as it is or be changed, also if the sorting criteria are efficient enough.
