Academically speaking, is a college education really as valid and useful as it seems?

Cherry Blossom Girl · 21-07-2013 11:11PM #1

This started off as a reply in the aaarrghh thread but then I got a bit carried away with my opinion and thought it might make an interesting thread. Sorry it's so wordy, but it's a topic which I find quite thought-provoking.

For those of you who are currently in the middle of your time in college, or like me and are just finished and set loose on the big bad world, do you think that the academic aspect of your college education is/has been all it's cracked up to be? (This probably applies to arts courses and such more so than practical courses like teaching/nursing/engineering/computer-y stuff, but I'd be interested in everyone's opinion all the same!)

I, personally, have mixed feelings on the matter. I've just finished an Arts degree in UL and it struck me this evening how many of the theoretical perspectives I spent four years learning about that I've almost completely forgotten already.

As my mind is want to do, it wandered from that and led me to question the validity of a college education, when this material is so easily learned and then quickly forgotten once it's no longer needed for essays and exams. I know I'm speaking personally here, but I'm sure I'm not the only person who has experienced this. It really reminds me of secondary school in so many ways. My course in particular seemed to contain an awful lot more rote-learning and spoon-feeding of information for essays and exams than I was expecting as an wide-eyed first year. These two things particularity annoyed me, as before I began college, I was under the impression that it would be pleasantly challenging. Maybe I was misguided by portrays of college on TV, but academically, it really was not what I was expecting.

Don't get me wrong, it was challenging at times, but not in a good way. Everyone goes on about Arts courses being beneficial because they encourage creativity and independent thought, but I haven't found this to be strictly true. (Not trying to start the "Arts courses are useless" debate because they are extremely important if they are approached and taught properly). Yes, being exposed to various reading materials and the opinions of others did improve my critical thinking and ability to critically evaluate works, but my creativity wasn't really challenged at all.

Instead I was challenged in silly ways, like with deliberately ambiguous assignment briefs or pointless essay titles or assignment marking schemes that lecturers then choose to ignore. Academically creative challenges would have been much more beneficial in the long run. In my four years of college, I can only count 3 or 4 lecturers who encouraged us to research and create our own essay/assignment if we wished, rather than using a given title and class notes.

Having said that, we did have to research and write an individual FYP, but I think it would have been better to have more encouragement of creativity throughout the 4 years, rather than in just the final year.Thinking about it, apart from certain lecturers' and students' personal opinions on subjects, and my experiences on CoOp, the majority of the information I learned during my four years of college I could have learned on my own from the internet and the library.

I realise that college is about far more than just your academic education, but it's depressing to realise that you/your parents/the grant gods have shelled out the guts of 10 grand to be taught things you could have taught yourself in far less time. I'm not trying to dismiss a college education entirely or put people off going to college because there are many fantastic things about college which you will never experience anywhere else. I may be a graduate who is hopelessly unskilled in anything really useful but I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to interact with and learn from a variety of lecturers and fellow students and have a college experience. I just think that something needs to be done about the way certain courses are taught and am wondering if others feel the same?

tl;dr: Academically speaking, some college courses are like secondary school in so many ways. The majority of what I learned in college I could have learned on my own from the internet and books. Therefore, is a college education that is mainly comprised of rote-learning and regurgitating lecture notes really worth it if it's almost completely devoid of individual creative challenges? Is this an arts-only phenomenon or have boardies in other courses had similar experiences?

PseudoFamous · 22-07-2013 12:11AM

so what you're asking is "are arts degrees worth the paper they're written on?"

Well if you studied greek architecture and feminism through the ages, no.

longhalloween · 22-07-2013 12:15AM

I hear there's plenty of jobs going for women's studies majors.

Especially if they have a minor in medieval English.

(For anyone who's critical of my post: I have an Arts degree, but my dole card has gotten more use than that piece of paper)

Cherry Blossom Girl · 22-07-2013 07:43AM

PseudoFamous wrote: »

so what you're asking is "are arts degrees worth the paper they're written on?

No, I'm not questioning the validity of an arts degree. I said as much in my OP. I'm asking if, academically speaking, you feel your degree, regardless of what it's in, has been worth your time in college. It has nothing to do with job prospects or how employable your degree makes you.
I'm more interested in the actual what-you-learn-and-how-you-learn-it aspect.

Ricky91t · 22-07-2013 08:47AM

I've recently graduated too, but have a slightly different view, possibly due to what I studied.

I studied Computer Science and am delighted I chose to, when I started Computer Science, I wasn't an idiot in terms of technology, but I wasn't the brightest either, I was the go-to guy for friends who had viruses, broken computers etc but it was all down to the fact I was the first person around to have broadband and had to deal with all these things myself years before others.

I knew nothing about Computer Science other than the name, which college it was taught in and the date of orientation, I went to my first day of lectures, not sure what to expect but was pleasantly surprised. From the first day we were treat as adults and expected to do our own thing, I was delighted to do this, but others weren't and soon after lecturers began to 'spoon feed' students.

When students are spoon fed, they don't retain the information, due to the fact they've made no effort to work for it and so it's completely pointless teaching it in this way.*

Once this became apparent there was an invisible divide in our year, there were the students who went home after their day at college and actually put into practice what they learnt, tried to use it in different ways, broke things, made things better and there was those who went home and put their bag down and didn't open it until the lecture the following day. To me the latter is not a useful degree, you leave with a piece of paper that says "I can do X, Y and Z" but you really can't and an employer has to train you up from scratch.

The former is a degree in which all students should leave college with, It's a student who's learnt a lot of information from their course and more, they've probably spent time over the summer months learning new things, things that improve their C.V, their understanding and their degree but it's not pushed enought and that's a problem.

Universities need to have as many students as possible(they need to get money from somewhere) and if a lecturer has a 60% drop out/failure rate questions would be raised, changes would be made and in the following years more students would pass. I personally feel that in doing so degrees are becoming less valuable and academically speaking the degree isn't worth doing, I think in years to come college degrees will just be seen as another leaving certificate and if it's in the area of the job you applied for then it's a bonus, but doesn't guarantee you'll be experienced for the job but you have an interest.

TLDR Yes it's a mess up there so this should summarise it. A spoon fed degree is a pointless degree, if you notice this happening in your course don't accept it, do more in your free time, learn new things that you wouldn't learn in your course, make your degree worthwhile, make it more valuable than the others around you. College is a competitive environment, at the end of the day 50% or you will be probably looking for a job in the same city, have something that makes you stand out from the rest.**

* I fully understand we all learn differently but if you're only learning something because it's being forced into your head, why bother?

** This is from experience, the job I'm going into probably wouldn't have been offered to me If I didn't learn certain topics myself

SarahBeep! · 28-07-2013 11:27AM

The main issue I have with my degree is the WAY in which it was taught. Being (almost) a trained teacher, I had my modules in education and I had my modules in various sciences. But these science modules were taught by scientists, not those involved in education. What's the point? I signed up to be a science teacher. I'm leaving college a mediocre scientist who took some education lectures!! Sound for that UL :rolleyes:

TroutMask · 28-07-2013 11:36AM

Sometimes, the true value of your degree only becomes apparent after quite a few years have passed. I thought that my degree was useless after I graduated, but as the years went by, I found that I was drawing on the skills I learned there more and more. Some of the classes I took were in areas that became quite in vogue many years later, so I was set up quite nicely for a couple of career changes.

Screaminmidget · 31-07-2013 10:56PM

Provided you're not doing some vague and/or generic arts degree, then yes, it is "as valid and useful as it seems". It wouldn't seem that way otherwise..

Academically speaking, is a college education really as valid and useful as it seems?

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