Law School of City University of New York compensates students for choosing not to take the bar examination
The world of higher education is under scrutiny, with law schools facing allegations of manipulating employment data. This practice, if true, can lead to misleading information about the job success of their graduates.
Manipulation of Employment Data
Some law schools have been accused of inflating post-graduation employment rates. This manipulation occurs in various ways, such as classifying non-legal jobs as legal, counting temporary or part-time positions as full-time employment, and creating temporary positions for graduates through funding agreements.
Additionally, salary figures might be misrepresented by excluding non-responders and emphasizing high-paying jobs while downplaying the median salary.
Consequences of Such Practices
These manipulative practices can have severe consequences. Misleading prospective students with unrealistic expectations about their job prospects after graduation can lead to poor career decisions.
Legally, such manipulation can result in violations of consumer protection laws. Ethically, it undermines the standards expected in higher education.
The increased scrutiny from accrediting bodies like the American Bar Association (ABA) has led to stricter reporting standards for law schools, aiming to ensure transparency and accuracy in employment data reporting. Law schools found to engage in such practices face damage to their reputation, which can affect their ability to attract high-quality students and faculty.
The Hearing and Future Implications
A recent hearing aimed to address the issue of student loans, which currently totals $870 billion, surpassing both credit card debt and auto loans in the United States. The hearing discussed the potential for making student loans dischargeable in bankruptcy.
Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) convened a judiciary subcommittee hearing to address these concerns. Additionally, 12 more lawsuits have been filed or will be filed against law schools for allegedly massaging graduate employment data.
However, no information is provided about the outcome of these previously filed lawsuits or any lawsuits involving the manipulation of graduate employment data at specific law schools.
In the case of the City University of New York School of Law (CUNY), the grant offered to academically struggling students to wait until February 2013 to sit for the bar exam was intended to boost CUNY's bar pass rate for first-time takers and improve its overall performance rate for 2012. CUNY needs to keep its 2012 performance rate above 75% to avoid sanctions from the American Bar Association.
Despite these controversies, it's crucial to maintain a focus on transparency and accountability in higher education to ensure that students are provided with accurate information about their future prospects.
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