Are College Degrees Overrated?

| Trackback | Permalink | August 18th, 2008

Outside a handful of majors — engineering and some of the sciences — a bachelor’s degree tells an employer nothing except that the applicant has a certain amount of intellectual ability and perseverance. Even a degree in a vocational major like business administration can mean anything from a solid base of knowledge to four years of barely remembered gut courses.

The solution is not better degrees, but no degrees. Young people entering the job market should have a known, trusted measure of their qualifications they can carry into job interviews. That measure should express what they know, not where they learned it or how long it took them. They need a certification, not a degree.

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From what I gather here, the author is saying that colleges should scrap degrees and have certificate based education instead. I know this article is generally talking about the American system here, but I can understand where he’s coming from. Key quote: “Equal educational opportunity means, among other things, creating a society in which it’s what you know that makes the difference.” Okay so let me first give you some of my background story before I go about ranting about why I think this author has got most of it right.

Most people I know do either commerce or chemistry or engineering - something to do with numbers at least. I on the other hand am studying for a Bachelor of Arts(Communications) degree- and when you tell that to people you can almost predict their response: they either go ‘huh?’, ‘what?’ or ‘why?’ Or they just give you a dumb look that says ‘I have no idea what the fuck that is’ but they go ‘Ohhhhh yeah cool’ anyway. Sometimes I do wonder what I’ll do after I finish my degree, which is next year - and sometimes I love uni, just because it has so many holidays and because it gives you so much freedom!! A lot of people imply that my course is POINTLESS and is a way to waste time thinking through what I ACTUALLY want to do which irritates me because Communications can actually be a pretty theoretical and interesting subject, depending on which uni you go to(in America its more stats based…in Europe its more abstract). I think it can be a valuable course in many aspects - especially in today’s information web 2.0 age.

I do agree though, certificate education would be a lot better than degrees in many ways…for one I believe work experience is 10000x more valuable than getting a HD for writing an essay about the Cold War. My uni has a few hands on units but they’re really not that in depth and they just lack something which you could easily learn at TAFE (a cert based center in Australia…mainly for trades).

For example, we had to do a Flash project last year. Most people had never learned Flash before(including me) so we were given a crash course and ONE WEEK to come up with something brilliant. I personally think they were expecting way too much(though I might be bitter coz I got a bad mark for the project….I seriously could rant all day about how insanely stupid that unit was marked though - if you want the details feel free to ask me :-P). ANYWHO we were also forced to make a website, and this semester we are forced to do image manipulation in PS Elements.

Valuable experience??? Yeah …. right. I reckon most people would just use it once and forget about it - its that basic. It’s hardly anything to boast about on your resume - ‘Oh yeah I made a ‘website’ using generic images and horrific layout styling, that counts as ‘experience’ right??’ or ‘Oh yeah I’ve also got experience in Flash…I can make stick figures move and add in background music. Oh and I can also stop the animation from looping!!!1′

On that note I am glad that my uni does have hands on stuff…it would be so great if it was certificate based though. I also agree with the article - exams can mean NOTHING. Just because you cram the night before and have a good memory - does that make you KNOWLEDGEABLE of the actual subject??? No. It just means you can remember stuff really, really well. I for one hate exams. And I know for a fact I’ve actually forgotted 98% of everything I learnt in high school - except the english and ancient history writing skills which I am using right now. Chemistry? Hah. I can’t even remember how to do a simple chemical equation now. I can’t even remember how to do a quadratic equation!!!!

The fact that so much hinges on exams in most units also puts pressure on everyone to know their facts.That’s why I LOVE English units - all it is is analyzing and essay writing!

So anyway, I’ve obviously thought about this a lot…and Ihave come up with the following reasons as to why most people go to uni:

• they are extremely focused and know exactly what they want to do in life
• they feel they have to because everyone else is (well all the smart people that is)
• they’re forced to go by their parents
• they go to escape the reality that they will have to work a full time job sooner or later
• they go to find their significant other then drop out to live off each other
• they go for the sake of feeling more educated

One of these above reasons fits basically every one of my friends who are going to uni at the moment. My mentor last year had been at uni for six years already - doing an Arts degree!!!!!!! One of my other friends is going to uni because they didn’t want to go to TAFE (over here its kinda considered ’second class education’). And in one of my tutes, a girl said one of her friends was going to uni to meet her future husband. *headdesk*

A lot of my friends actually don’t go to uni. Some went to TAFE, and others are bumming round doing random jobs. One of my friends works for the government and can work her way up through promotions, which is great considering her age and education(she just finished high school). Some of my friends have taken a year off and planning on doing a course at uni. Others are just stuck working dead end hospitality jobs…like some people I have worked with in my part time jobs. Don’t get me wrong, I know hospitality can pay really well. But for the most part, working as a waiter will only get you so far - not to mention rude customers can always ruin your day!!!

From this perspective, I think it would be hard to implement certificate testing for EVERY occupation…no doubt some degrees just need plain ol’ theory. I like the last part of the article though:

Our obsession with the BA has created a two-tiered entry to adulthood, anointing some for admission to the club and labeling the rest as second-best. Here’s the reality: Everyone in every occupation starts as an apprentice. Those who are good enough become journeymen. The best become master craftsmen…Getting rid of the BA and replacing it with evidence of competence — treating post-secondary education as apprenticeships for everyone — is one way to help us to recognize that common bond.

Idealistic or Idiotic?? What are YOUR thoughts?

~ Jakki posted at 1:12 am

See also...

• The Turing Test?
• What is this world coming to…