Researched Essay: What the role of higher education should be in the US

Hello! Everyone!

I would like to ask any of you guys can give me some clues for this essay's outline...

Prompt:
Write a researched paper in which you state and defend your thoughts on what the role of higher education in the US should be. Determine and include 2 outcomes of higher education in the US that your research supports.

Including the following elements:
1.An introduction in which you provide a brief background to the issue, indicating its significance.
2.A clearly stated claim/thesis at the end of the introduction. This will be your opinion about the issue.
3.A statement and rebuttal of differing opinions on the issue
4.Your own argument in support of your claim. Your argument should comprise reasons and evidence for holding your opinion
5.A conclusion that leaves your audience with no doubt about your stance.

My opinion is that the role should be a personal investment. But I dunno what to write for the outline. I started as below:

I. Introduction
A. Background of the current educational issue
B.Significance
C.Thesis - the role of higher education in the US should be personal investment.

II. Background information.
A..(I'm stuck in here)

I greatly appreciate your comments, help, opinions, and any replies!

I just thought a little bit, perhaps it's not that good. Hoping someone may correct some errors or mistakes in it.. Thank you!

I. Introduction
A. Background of the issue
B. Significance
C. Thesis - The role of higher education in the US should be personal investment

II. Previous role of higher education
A. American situation
1. Easier competition
2. More developing academic areas
i.Technology
ii. Different institute(medical, business, etc)
3. Easier employment
B. Public opinion

III. Current role of higher education
A. American situation
1. Extreme competition
2. Limited time to study
i. Financial situation
ii. Multiple majors
iii. Self-Interest is not enough for practical needs
3. Hard employment
B. Public opinion

IV. Personal argument
A. Example (Data)
1. American
2. China
B. Close people opinion

V. Conclusion
A. Restatement of thesis
B. Restatement of argument

Well, this looks like a very impressive outline. I think you should proceed with confidence.

The difficult thing about using a detailed outline, though, is that you are committing to do this scavenger hunt. I suggest that you should always be willing to change the outline to accommodate changes of focus that you want to make after going deep into your readnig of some of the articles you find.

You say you are stuck on the part about finding background information, but that should be easy. All you have to do is spend some hours reading articles other people have written about the role of education. If you read 5 articles, you'll see that a few of them cover some of the same major topics. soon, you'll find that you are sort of an authority in the field, in the sense that you know the major philosophical underpinnings of this question about the role of higher ed.

Try this: questia.com/library/education/history-of-higher-education.jsp

I love questia, but you hve to pay 20 dollars for a month of access...

and wiki is a good place to get a solid understanding en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higher_education_in_the_United_States