Higher miseducation

Let’s talk about education: what it really is and, contrary to popular belief, what it is not.

For most people, education is primarily associated with universities you enter after school. It is believed that a good education obtained at a respectable and reputable university practically guarantees a stable, well-paid job in the future. But with each passing year, faith in higher education as a way to secure a solid profession and a comfortable life for the rest of your days weakens and crumbles.

More and more people understand that five years in an average university will not bring them even a centimetre closer to a decent, well-paid job. And the problem lies not only in universities as such, but also in our overall attitude toward education. It is changing, gradually, but not fast enough to keep up with an increasingly globalised and competitive present-day world that sometimes advances at an unthinkable pace.

To avoid falling behind, you need to learn first and foremost. And in this case, we are not talking about studying at universities, but about the ability to reassess values, change entrenched thinking patterns, and shed the burden of misconceptions that drag us down.

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn and relearn,” — said Alvin Toffler. An extremely precise observation by the American sociologist and writer.

What is wrong with the traditional system of higher education? Let’s break down a number of misconceptions related to university study and education as a whole.

1. A diploma does not equal a successful career

Many people still think that studying at a good university leads to a high-paying, highly qualified job. In reality, it does not. By and large, this claim has never been fully true; it’s just that in the past, entering university was almost the only viable way to enter a profession because there were no other options for acquiring the necessary theoretical knowledge.

But times have changed, the internet appeared, and the barriers facing a knowledge seeker, if not completely fallen, have certainly become much lower. Online university programmes, specialised courses to level up professional skills and learn tools that have only just emerged in a given field; breakdowns of complex disciplines in interactive formats and remote mentorship from top experts — there are plenty of opportunities for growth. The world is already very different, yet many still believe the path to a good job runs exclusively through university.

2. The wrong benchmark for comparison

All the way until they finish their studies and start job hunting, most students are captive to a misconception we can call the wrong benchmark for comparison. Simply put, they compare themselves to their classmates and feel proud if they are doing better in coursework than the rest.

This illusion persists until a person starts thinking about work and looks elsewhere. Because if students compared themselves to people already working in their future profession, they would see they are approaching the goal in millimetre steps. And given how fast technology evolves in many areas, they might even be standing still.

So don’t compare yourself to classmates. The best criterion for your knowledge and progress will be the projects you have done and your achievements at work — in real practice. Compare yourself not with the crowd around you but with the market and with the level of specialists who actually work in your profession — that is far more appropriate.

3. Vocational training makes up only a small part of what is taught at university

When you come to a job, you will be asked what you already know how to do, not what you were taught. Your manager will be interested in what knowledge and skills you have that are in demand for the position you are applying for. Unfortunately, the university learning system aims to cram as much general knowledge as possible into a student, making them reasonably erudite and well-rounded (if you are lucky), but not a capable specialist.

Therefore, most graduates end up learning the profession itself — the very degree they spent about five years earning — only after graduation. On their first job, which will also be far from easy to find. And yet, you would think university is precisely the place where yesterday’s schoolchildren are turned into professionals. So why does it work out differently in real life?

4. Universities are not aiming to turn you into a top-class professional

That’s because most universities do not even try to prepare professionals who can work as specialists immediately after graduation. It is too complex a task — one that most institutions, except the very top ones, simply cannot handle even in theory (at least within the traditional approach to education).

So instructors do what they can — they provide students with a broad range of general information and instil the ability to memorise and process data. That is a valuable skill, but you will have to apply it to learn the actual profession on your own.

5. Lack of focus

If a person studies more than two subjects at the same time, they are wasting their time. To yesterday’s schoolkids and students, this claim may sound wrong. More experienced people are more likely to agree with it.

School lessons are short not because that is more effective, but because it is hard for children to maintain concentration for more than an hour. But frequent task switching prevents the brain from thinking effectively. At work you will be treated like an adult, and frequent switching between tasks will start to severely reduce your productivity.

Why do you think we can effectively prepare for an exam the last night before it or finish most of a project in the two hours before the deadline? We simply do not switch to other tasks. Hence the sharply increased efficiency. Learning different subjects and sciences in small chunks is often far less effective than studying a single topic with complete focus on the process.

6. The university years are used extremely inefficiently

Suppose you study a subject for two semesters. You have two lectures and two practicals per week. That is a serious load by university standards. How many hours is that? Four class periods of two academic hours (1.5 regular hours each) — that’s 6 hours a week. In the first semester, we study 4 months: September, October, November, December. In the second — another 4: February, March, April, May. In total: 8 months with 4.5 weeks each and 6 hours per week. 216 hours per year. Meanwhile, an average month has 180 working hours.

It follows that any year-long course can be mastered in just a month and a half — or, if you really want (or need) to — in a single month. It turns out that the multi-year university experience, which for most people coincides with the peak years for absorbing knowledge, is one of the least effective periods of our lives.

— What’s good about studying at university?
— You’re an unemployed alcoholic, and your parents are proud of you :)

7. Lack of hands-on skills, which are worth many times more than theory

In life and at work, results are paramount, and you achieve them through practical action. Knowledge of theory is worth almost nothing without practice. This is one of the weakest sides of modern higher education — the foundation of any university programme is theory, which students will then have to learn to apply on their own.

That is why brilliant students who graduated with excellent grades often fail to achieve noticeable results in life, while slackers and underachievers — many of whom do not have higher education at all — end up wildly successful.

Only practice matters in life. The more knowledge you have at the expense of skills, the less useful it is. A huge load of theory that is never applied in practice often turns out to be a liability dragging you down. It’s sad, but true.

8. Universities teach generic and outdated knowledge

But even the theory that traditional education inevitably emphasises often turns out to be of questionable quality. The world works such that theory follows practice, not the other way around. Therefore, the knowledge taught at universities is often, let’s say, not exactly fresh — especially at institutions that clearly do not contend for spots in the top rankings of the world’s best universities.

Instructors — the most successful of whom have spent most of their own careers developing the skill of teaching students rather than practising the profession they teach — do not have, and cannot have, the depth of knowledge possessed by an experienced, in-demand practitioner.