Featured Presentation:

A More Affordable College Education

Dr. Berrin Kilicarslan. Assistant Professor of Mathematics; Wor-Wic Community College: bkilicarslan@worwic.edu  

A recent study implemented by MIT Professor Daron Acemoglu shows that the income inequality throughout the society worsened after the 1980s especially among the people who have an education level less than a Bachelor’s degree.

He shows that there is a direct relationship between the democracy level of a country and income equality. For these reasons, it is a vital priority for the nations to provide the most affordable ways of higher education to their younger generations.

Community colleges and other higher education institutions are in a very important position to be the pioneers to come up with solutions for a more affordable college education.

Together they can prepare younger generations for in-demand jobs. Community colleges can build a bridge between the younger generations and four year institutions. However, they cannot do it alone, they need support from the state or federal government.

In this presentation, why nations need a more affordable college education was discussed. First of all, whether there is any relationship between democracy and income equality or not was discussed as well, and then if there is a relationship, it will be related to a more affordable college education. The goal of this presentation was to raise awareness of this topic.

In this presentation, some proposals were shared to address this need as well.

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