WATCH: Rob Jenkins discusses student loan forgiveness

Campus Reform Higher Education Fellow and tenured associate professor of English at Georgia State University Rob Jenkins joined Wilcow! to discuss student loan forgiveness.

In late August, President Biden announced his administration's plan to provide students upwards of $20,000 dollars in loan forgiveness. The plan also extends the pause on loan repayment through December 31. 

Jenkins stated the original intent of student loans "was to help these young people by giving them loans," which would allow students to "go and get degrees that enable them to get good jobs and pay back those loans[.]"

[RELATED: WATCH: Biden student loan plan is 'slap in the face']

"That sort of funds the next generation of kids coming through," Jenkins said.

Jenkins then targeted claims that students are receiving degrees in subjects that are allegedly not profitable.

"There is no reason that people can't major in [humanitarian] fields and still go out and get jobs if we're teaching them the right things at [the] university level," Jenkins said, noting his partiality to humanities.

However, Jenkins then alleged that professors "are not necessarily teaching critical thinking skills, or writing the way that we should."

[RELATED: WATCH: Rob Jenkins discusses student loan debt and spikes in university donations]

Instead, Jenkins stated that universities should balance "teaching kids broader life skills that will enrich their lives, not just their working life," with "jobs skills so that they can make a good living and contribute to society." 

"The fact that we have to...wave the magic wand and supposedly make them disappear, which is to say shift them on to the taxpayers... shows that we're just driving up the cost," Jenkins said. "The whole system is failing and seems, potentially, to be on the verge of collapse."

He proposed that employers "subsidize or offset these loans for the people that they're going to be hiring in the future."

Follow @RachelK_Kennedy on Twitter.