What is Diploma Disease?

According to some researchers, there is a trend where society believes that people who hold higher education degrees such as bachelors or masters degrees, are the best candidate for a job simply because they have a degree. The term for this is education inflation. Education inflation is the concept that as someone obtains a higher degree or degrees, they will naturally qualify for a higher position in the workforce. This is what keeps a student in school, constantly striving for the highest degree they can get, with the misguided notion that they will stand a far better chance than other applicants who might not have the same degree or degrees. This is not the case in most situations, since actual experience is what an employer is usually looking for. Even if an applicant has degrees, it doesn't mean they have the skills or experience necessary for the job. Just going to school and collecting degrees without any work place experience, certainly does not guarantee that a student will meet the requirements of the job.

So how does diploma disease affect society? That's easy. It falsely creates the idea that degrees are a necessity if a person wants to be a better, and better employed, person. It also has negative effects on a society as a whole when employers insist on certain degrees for their applicants, whether or not a degree is truly needed for the job. This forces people who can afford it to go to school and get at least one degree, while those who can't afford or can't get into college are stuck in low paying jobs where a degree isn't required. This is a situation that ultimately causes societal problems and ill feelings toward the wealthy and the college graduate who are employed in the good positions that pay a decent salary.

There are solutions to diploma disease, but it means changing the way employers think, and this isn't always an easy thing. It would mean hiring employees and training them in a particular job so they can gain on-the-job experience, rather than assuming a college degree automatically qualifies them for a position. Then, once an employee is working, they could go ahead and get further training in that specific job, rather than getting a degree that means nothing or very little for the job. This is career-oriented schooling that's realistic. It wouldn't affect the colleges, because students would still attend so they could get training in their career. It's just more practical and gives everyone, no matter what social status they are, to work their way up the ladder of employment without making a degree the qualifier for the job.

This would require employers changing their thinking that a degree means a person is more intelligent or better suited for a job than a person who doesn't have a degree. Of course, asking people to change their mind about something like this is the difficult part. But if it could be done, there would be better opportunities for everyone, not just a select few.

Citations:

Dore, R. P. The Diploma Disease. 1976. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Marshall, Gordon. Diploma Disease. Dictionary of Sociology. 1998. Encyclopedia.com. 24 Oct. 2009 .

Schugurensky, Daniel. Ronald Dore publishes Diploma Disease in response to qualification escalation. 2001. Department of Adult Education, Community Development and Counselling Psychology,The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto (OISE/UT).