College professors often lament that many of their students have little interest in learning, but are in college just because they need a credential to have a chance at landing a job.

One of them is Peter Simonson, and in today’s Martin Center article, he examines the sad phenomenon of attending college merely to get the degree.

He writes, “For such students, college is less a calling than a requirement: a way to keep a promotion path open, qualify for higher pay, survive HR filters where a real person may never see their résumé, or be considered for jobs that should not even require advanced academic preparation.”

Where does the responsibility lie? Simonson argues that the higher ed establishment must bear much of the blame. It wanted mass enrollment, which brought in a great increase in money for salaries, offices, travel, and so on. That also meant luring in hordes of students with minimal academic preparation or interest — so it’s no surprise that many of them had little interest in college coursework.

Read the whole thing.