The pipeline of valuable educational experiences turning into diploma factories. While there are societal pressures and a constant insistence that pursuing it is what makes the difference between being a success and a failure, or financial stability and living paycheck to paycheck, the reality is that it is in no way mandatory. Despite this, many young people feel like it’s something that they have to do, for one reason or another, which, in the current age of anti-intellectualism and almost complete technological dependency, is leading the concept of higher education to a place where it is no longer what it’s supposed to be. Rather than being inspired by a desire to learn, grow, and develop, pursuing a higher education has become a point to be ticked off a checklist. The institutions that used to be a goal to aspire to are slowly morphing into bona fide diploma factories — a label that is becoming more and more true as years go on—and involve little to no care for the integral part that entails learning and exploring things with like-minded people.
