The Relevance of University Education

The Relevance of University Education

Paper Details

The Relevance of University Education.

The article is your university degree barely worth the paper it’s written on? by Sonia Sodha Was published on The Guardian on Friday March 28^th and focused on the relevance of university education in England.  A comparison between the sections of the young population in the United Kingdom that undertake University education has increased immensely from 2% (1945) to the current 43%. It is common knowledge, without contrast, to the merits that graduates often earn more in the job market, that universities improve local economies and that university education broadens the scope of those who go through it. Professor Caplan in his book The Case against Education asks the question of how much skills the degree equips those who learn it with, beside the certificate paper that it offers. The Relevance of University Education.  Most statistical provisions focus on the number of enrollments into and graduations out of the university, while openly ignoring the question on credibility of University education (Caplan’s question). University education is diluted to the extent that young people often choose to involve into it for the mere fact that it is a basic requirement in the job market, and everyone is doing it. Statistics in South Korea, for instance, show that close to 70% of school leavers join university. Despite these numbers, South Korea experiences comparatively higher rates of unemployment than her neighboring countries.

Philosopher Martha Nussbaum articulates the importance of universities shifting from the traditional teaching of specific skills to impacting imaginative learning upon students. Major global companies like Apple has been witnessed to show affiliation with more thinkers than just skills. Even so, it is of great advantage for the local universities to adopt techniques that equip graduates with a wider scope of the opportunities that the world provides rather than instilling specific skills and knowledge unto graduates. Training students for the purpose of being thinkers rather than instilling specific careers molds graduates into creative problem solvers rather than instruction followers. Graduates are likely to emerge complete and all-rounded professionals when their career trainings are blended with skills on how to incorporate critical thinking in their working environment.

A University training system that equips its students with the ability to carry out independent thinking and decision making creates in them creative problem solvers. Critical thinking can simply be described as one’s ability to independently analyze and present independent evidences about an idea. (Rodzalan and Saat) Currently, most employers are set to disregard academic qualifications as a channel of recruiting employees, but through internally organized sets of tests to try the problem solving abilities of new staff. The Relevance of University Education. For example, apple recruited Joshua Cohen due to his proficiency in free thinking. Unlike systems that train pure careers and specific skills that turn graduates into robots that follow strict instructions, independent thinkers identify, analyze and find an approach to a variety of problems that face them in their lines of professionalism. With this kind of professionals, employers are set to earn to the peak, the benefits of their services.

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Incorporating critical thinking and free thinking trainings into career training makes universities prepare graduates to be complete and all rounded individuals. Graduates taught how to practice critical thinking often find it easy to be innovative and can easily venture into other beneficial adventures in their lives, even in the event that they fail to secure employment opportunities in their lines of professionalism (QSI news). As opposed to offering specififc career guideliunes, a university system that aims at broadening the minds of its graduates serves them with an innovative mind that helps them in seeing hidden opportunities and focussing on them. Currently, a number of universities have been at the fore frongt in promoting innovation- geared leraning at the expence of the conventional career training. For example, the fucuculty of arts at the University of Western Australia has been keen to organize various annual innovative contests that reward the most skillful and creative students at the different wings of arts, including fashion, music among others.

A university training based on instilling critical thinking skills creates effective leadership and entreprenuership skills in graduates Leadership encompasses all activivties that regard to being answerable on behalf of a group of people or organization while entreprenuership entails mobilization of different aspects for easy running of business organization. (Sanscartier). Robert Enis describes critical thinking in leadership as an independent thought on what to believe and what to do about it.The Relevance of University Education.  Skill training makes graduates who have to work under someone  else’s  supervision in order to deliver quality work, while incoporation of critical thinking into career training develops graduates who can easily mechanize self-drive and gear towards set goals. Leadership starts with self governance and drive. Transforming quality leadesrhip based on critical thinking into business management brings out well established entreprenueral qualities. These qualities are profitable to the organizations that one works with.

To conclude, it is fair to point that a good quality of university degree is not dependent only on the skills/ career relayed upon the graduate, but also the value added onto the garduate by process. In this aspect, employing critical thinking as a way to widen the scope of the student and to add value to their career is vital. It is proved that critical thinking instills leadership qualities into graduates, improves their innovative abilities as well as making them great problem solvers in the job market. All these is important in creating complete scholars who can come out of degree programs with the confidence to face the dynamics of the job market. The Relevance of University Education.

Work cited

QSI news. The power of critical thinking in the modern graduate. 21 April 2016. https://www.studyinternational.com/news/the-power-of-critical-thinking-in-the-modern-graduate/. 6 November 2018.

Rodzalan, Shazaitul Azreen and Maisarah Mohamed Saat. “The Perception of Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Skill among Malaysian Undergraduate Students.” Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences (2018): 725-732. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273501316_The_Perception_of_Critical_Thinking_and_Problem_Solving_Skill_among_Malaysian_Undergraduate_Students.

Sanscartier, Martine. Leadership – The Importance of Critical Thinking. 26 September 2013. http://www.marchfifteen.ca/leadership-the-importance-of-critical-thinking/. 6 November 2018. The Relevance of University Education.