Are students getting an education worth their money which prepares them for the world? | Ojel L. Rodriguez Burgos

Education is vital to the development of mankind. We participate in the educational process from early childhood into the final days of our lives in an effort to acquire knowledge. To this end, idviduals are constantly searching for truths about themselves as well as, the real and metaphysical world they inhabit.

Education is clearly of value to the individual, but it also has value at the level of the community.

This community value can be summarised in two ways; the economic and citizen value of education. Education equips individuals with the skills and knowledge necessary for them to compete in the modern economy. Hence, individuals can respond to the demands of the economy for workers with specific skillsets.

The citizenship value of education prepares the individual to become an active participant in the civil and political life of the polity. Thereby providing individuals with the ability to exercise their political duties with the goal of the betterment of the country.

Consequently, higher education should be moulding truly educated individuals who are acquainted with the real and the transcendent realm they live in; enabling individuals to pursue their own ends and desires. Take, for example, the truth about playing rugby, we can only play rugby if individuals decide that ‘the rules’ of rugby apply to all the players, as opposed to each player following their ‘own truths’ and playing however they want. The same idea applies to education, we have to know the essential truths of what we are studying and the society around us to be able to effectively participate in it.

Secondly higher education should ensure that the subjects offered to students prepare them for the job market and civil society. Education is therefore a continuous process where the student deepens his knowledge of his area of studies, but also deepens his knowledge of life. Additionally, students should be gaining knowledge in order to participate in the duties of citizenship – yet 18 to 24 years olds still have low levels of knowledge about politics.

In ancient Greece and Rome education was a prerequisite for a citizen to participate in public life, which assured a strong and orderly polis. Today this would mean understanding for example our unwritten constitution and the functions a parliament in order to ensure that citizens make informed electoral decisions. This requires an understanding of a plethora of subjects such as history, political science, logic, as well as fostering a culture of learning and genuine critical thinking.

However, looking at the current state of higher education in Britain begs the question of whether students are getting their money’s worth. I believe, the answer is no, as students are not getting an education with suitably prepares them for participation in the economy and associated duties of citizenship. It is therefore clear that higher education has abandoned the principles that mould truly educated individuals.

Foremostly, the search for truth is coming under attack from an epistemological barrage of subjectivism and relativism, which allows people to determine their own truths or the ones deemed acceptable and reject universal truths that are deemed unfashionable.

As a result, education increasingly offers a muddle of subjects which bear little relation to requirements of the modern economy and civil life. Hence, we have universities offering more and more places on overly niche courses such as the University of Kent offering a MA degree in Stand-up comedy, the University of Plymouth giving a course on Surf Science and Technology and London Met offering a module titled “Forgetting of Air”.

That is not to say that these are wholly devoid of value but at a time when the cost of attending higher education in the United Kingdom is rising,  and the UK’s productivity growth is slow, Britain’s higher education sector must adequately prepare its citizens for the modern economy; addressing the growing skills gaps in an areas such as data science and computing affecting recruitment for businesses. Only then will universities fulfil their educational duties, enabling  dreams of a globally competitive Britain to become feasible.

Today, higher education focuses more on achieving a certain number of credits, often on overly niche courses, simply so that a student can ‘graduate’ rather than fulfilling their duty to produce truly educated individuals.

Knowing the monetary value of education for the modern world requires higher education to embrace truth, depth and correlating studies with the needs of the economy. Embracing these will mean that regardless of the cost, our institutional education imbibes students with the requisite skills to enable Britain to compete on the international stage.  

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