I am not stating that University degrees are entirely worthless, but that contrary to popular belief, the value of a degree should be dramatically reduced.
I'd
like to point out that
I'm not claiming that not having a degree is better.
I understand some young adults lead rather sheltered lives and
simply aren't ready for the real world. University could be
required in some cases as the bridge between adolescence and
adulthood.
I understand certain degrees are essential to some fields. The following is mainly my experience of students studying subjects such as Politics, Economics, History, Sociology, Media, Art, Film and Philosophy.
The University degree
(and the position of that university in the ranks) can propel you
further in life, increase your value, and ultimately, bag you the job
at the end.
How is that possible
with virtually no real-work experience?
Because of the
qualities universally deduced from the term 'degree-holder';
hard-worker, organised, team player, critical thinker, skilled,
independent, experienced, respects authority, well-disciplined.. and
so on, and the impact this has on the 'non-degree-holder', the one
who resigns himself to a life of burger-flipping (which, by the way,
takes a considerable amount of all the above).
The point?
Employers should
evaluate the value of an applicant without the credentials of
a traditional degree, rather than simply having computers filter them
out.
Why bother with
those losers/dropouts/idiots/*insert stereotype of a
non-degree-holder here*?
Because the presupposed
qualities of a degree-holder are not absolute. In my experience, many
students are the most lazy, disorganised, idle, unskilled, dependent,
inexperienced, disrespectful, and undisciplined people I've ever come
across. Of course there are exceptions, but the students I've lived
with both in halls and off-campus waste the majority of their time
while throwing both their student loans and their parents money into
learning only the theory of the workplace.
What 'Degree-holder'
means to me
The ability to squeeze
a term and/or year into the 1-2 weeks before deadline, producing some
kind of assessment, be that an essay, report or exam, that
regurgitates everything into a format that passes the set criteria,
and voilà! (Plus, bad grades are entirely the result of a bad
department, not ones own poor effort, of course!). I wrote four
assignments the night before they were due and received marks between
68% and 75%- does this make me a good quality candidate in the
workplace?
Status
The degree-holder
simply waves a copy of their BA as a signal or status of
candidate quality – yet that piece of paper does not necessarily
provide the employer with someone who has the skills needed for that
job. So long as employers advertise jobs to require a degree, the
filter will remain in place. I can't help but wonder, since attaining
a degree requires a significant amount of money, are we really just
using money to determine a persons value?
Me
I have enrolled and left university twice for different reasons. I refuse to believe that I am less valuable than my peers who made it to graduation.
What
do you think, does a degree truly indicate candidate quality? Or
should the value of a degree be reduced?
Labels: degree, drop out, status, value, work experience
