Are Universities Too Close With The Tech Companies Who Donate?
from the conflict-of-interest? dept
An interesting look at the large tech companies who donate money, equipment and software to universities, and whether or not it unfairly biases university curricula in their favor. At the heart of this matter, of course, is Microsoft, who has donated a ton of money to colleges and universities. The universities defend the relationships, saying, basically, that the money is needed - and the companies doing the donating tend to be the technologies that people need to know in order to get jobs after they graduate. In the end, that seems to be the core issue. If the point of the education is to help students get jobs after they graduate, and learning this technology can help them do that, then there isn't a huge problem. If the point, though, is to learn the basic skills across a broad range of technologies, so that they can take that education and go in different directions with it, then the deals may be problematic. Figuring out the right balance is important.
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Penn State
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skillz
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As opposed to unix?
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Re: As opposed to unix?
Are you trying to make a claim or a point with the above question?
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No Subject Given
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the purpose of universities
Learning how to think logically is an asset that will last a lifetime. Learning all the latest frobs of Microsoft Office Whatever will be useless in a couple of years, because everything will have changed.
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