How will you spend your Thanksgiving break?
NYU President John Sexton is worried about higher education.
At last Thursday's University Senate meeting, Sexton discussed the United States' declining rank as a world leader in secondary education and his concerns about the quality of higher education.
Before, the U.S. has ranked as the world leader in secondary education. Now, as Sexton noted at the meeting, the U.S. ranks 18th among 36 nations in quality of secondary education provided, according to a 2008 report released by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Sexton also touched on President Obama's American Graduation Initiative, which aims to help five million American students earn degrees and certificates within a certain time frame.
According to Ann Marcus, director of the Steinhardt Institute of Higher Education Policy, the initiative's focus is on community colleges.
Still, Sexton is concerned about the time limit of the initiative.
"It is mathematically impossible, unless you change what a bachelor's degree means," he said.
He stressed that the university should not make it a race for a four-year degree — but that it should do everything to "empower students to have the choice of where they want to go."
