Essay on "Role of Religion in Higher Education"

Essay 5 pages (2043 words) Sources: 5

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Role of Religion in Higher Education

What role has philanthropy had in higher education?

What aspects of higher education are more similar to that of a corporation or business?

Role of religion in higher education

Religion plays a big role in the higher education sectors, the roles can be described as positive and negative.

Sherkat (2007) pointed out that religion is indeed a very hot topic in the educational sector. Scholars have noticed that students are becoming more religious than ever before. Other studies have made claims that religious students perform better even though this argument does not have merit. Religion has been observed to provide students with relatively health alternative to more destructive social engagements. Fundamental Christianity however has been shown to have a negative impact on education. Darnell & Sherkat (1997) as well as Glass & Jacobs (2005) pointed out that certain religious factors yield positive impact on educational success while others undermines it. Several researches have indicated that students who are religious always do better in their critical thinking and academic area (Mooney,2005). Studies elaborate that there are positive impact involving religion in school leading to success. In the higher education levels, it is important to note that student's participation in religion is cutting across different denominational lines. On the other hand, participation of religion in an institution if combined with personal religiosity can help in lowering the rates of irresponsible behaviors including; drug and substance abuse, Immorality and theft, all these activities in one way undermines the college careers (Regnerus,2000). Apart from the religion practices, there are also other religious extra-curricular activities which provides similar positive influence to students (Pascarella et al., 2004)

It is tradition that in higher education institutions, there have been organized groupings where students join and participate in different religious activities organized in the groups. In joining these groups, the students are perceived to be choosing on a social commitment willingly. By actively participating the religious groups indicates that the student will forgo other types of social activities which might go against proscriptions and prescriptions of the religious traditions. It is a tradition that students who attend to religious groups including Christianity and Muslim are unlikely to be found in a bar, this is due to the most of the religious groups in the higher education institutions do not support use of alcohol and other drugs in the society. This therefore implies that the students will be able conform to the college roles and regulations including attending class regularly and timely completion of assignment (Regnerus,2000).

Religion plays a positive role in the higher educational institutions in that; religious students are always expected to devote more time and energy in their social causes and studies (Wilson & Janoski, 1995).

Negative role of religion: Religion has also played negative rule in the institutions of higher learning.To start with, In secular universities, there has been several problems in lecture halls and in residential life due to increase in promotion of religious conservatives by the students and teachers. It is very clear that those who have been following religious practices are very reluctant to accept or tolerate ideas which do not confirm with their faith; such students will therefore undertake anything to protect the beliefs of their religion. To add on, in most cases there has been difficulties in interaction between students due to religion believes differences.

On the other negative part, every phenomenon has an explanation on how it occurred in the religious perspective, while the same phenomena has nearly a contradicting explanation in the secular education (Hood et al. 2005). It therefore becomes difficult for a religious student to believe contrary to the religious perspective. This elaborate on the fact that in religion, the focus is on the sacred book involved, hence limiting the cognitive complexity of the thinking capacity (Hunsberger et al., 1994), leading to poor performance and causing conflict with the professors

Most of the religious students have been brought up in a strict environment where they are followed up by either a religious parent or a religious leader, in an event where such students joins an institution of higher learning and finds out that they are not under any watch there is high likelihood that they will adopt a misbehavior including experimentation with sex, drug and substance abuse and also undertaking irresponsible behavior.

What role has philanthropy had in higher education?

Philanthropy in simple terms refers to initiative by the private sector to support public good with their focus being improving the quality of life. Studies which have been undertaken before indicates that there has always been tension between the private sector and the general public which always leads to controversy among the two. This has been so due to the fact that the private sectors mandate is mainly to make profit while the general public is more concerned with the quality of service at a minimal cost possible. The fact that the general public and the private sector have been having contradicting views, Foundations have been playing a major role in agitating, mediating and advocating between these two sectors.

Philanthropy has played an important role in the development of higher education in the world; it is observed that United States of America has been leading in incorporating philanthropy in the financing of higher educational institutions followed by the United Kingdom at a big difference. For comparison purposes, United States of America had a total of 200 institutions of higher education having endowment which is worth $200 billion as of the year 2004, while in United Kingdom; a total of 5 institutions of higher learning had endowment (Labi,2004). Even though the number of institutions of higher learning smaller than in the United States of America, the truth is that this gap was too huge hence call for an action.

There has been increase in demands for the institutions of higher learning worldwide. While it is the role of states or governments to ensure funding for these institutions, it is a fact that many nations have increasingly been turning to corporate philanthropy with a view to filing the gap between the rising costs of constituting the institutions of higher learning and the availability of limited resources from the states or government. Examples of this has can be depicted from all over the world including; in Europe where several mechanisms have been established in support for corporate philanthropy to support different researches, African Universities have also been able to establish endowment, and different fundraising initiatives campaigns have been undertaken through different universities in Australia, China and Europe (Teferra,2005) Educational philanthropy has been very important in ensuring that the institutions of higher learning are developed, this is because it is through these institutions that the private sector gets the skilled workmanship to head their operations. Educational philanthropy had been focusing on the following areas: Focusing on alleviation of problems which are immediate and are caused as a result of falling enrollments and deficits in the budget: Educational philanthropies have also been committing a lot of their resources in sustaining what had been functioning and has shown signs of success in the future: And finally, they have been offering support the incremental improvements and budgets, hence it can be said they have been emphasizing on the root causes of the problem and in other cases they provide long-term solution.

Most of those involved in the philanthropic work have been engaged in nearly all the three mentioned choices with several philanthropic organizations being involved majorly in the last one which involves the identification of the root causes then work on the areas to address them in long-term. It is very important that those involved in the philanthropic work should learn that there are several levels of interventions including; immediate solutions, Medium term solutions and long-term solutions. Immediate solutions means giving to solve an instant problem which has erupted, Medium term means giving with a view of receiving the benefits in about five years to come and long-term solutions means setting up institutional framework to be able to stand in its own in the future, it involves building on the capacity and legal framework.

What aspects of higher education are more similar to that of a corporation or business?

Higher education and corporate businesses have several similarities. Higher education institution should model their decision making and planning like the successful for-profit organization since they are similar to the corporate business, are operated in similar environments and they also obey similar laws of organizational development. They are similar in terms of governance and administration. According to Westmeyer (1990),the governance of businesses entails the setting of certain policies to be used in guiding both the nature and the quality of a given products, procedure of production as well as the laws used for determining the Applicable sanctions. Administration on the other hand involves the application of the sets of policies. College Governing Boards (1986 ) pointed out that about 40% of Higher education board members are from the business… READ MORE

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