Let’s talk about education. About what it really is. And also about what—contrary to what most people think—it is not.
For most people, education is primarily associated with universities that you enter after school. It is believed that a good education obtained at a decent and respected university practically guarantees a person stable, well-paid work in the future. But with every year, faith in higher education as a way to secure a decent profession and a comfortable life for the rest of one’s days grows weaker and collapses.
More and more people understand that 5 years at an average university will not bring them one centimeter closer to a decent, well-paid job. And the problem is not only universities as such, but also our attitude toward education in general. It is gradually changing, but not fast enough to keep up with the rapidly globalizing and competitive world of today, which sometimes develops at simply unimaginable speeds.
To avoid falling behind, first and foremost you need to learn. And in this case, we are not talking about studying at universities, but about the ability to reassess values, change entrenched thinking patterns, and get rid of the burden of misconceptions that pull 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 accurate observation by the American sociologist and writer.
What is wrong with the traditional higher education system? Let’s examine 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 well-paid, highly qualified job. In reality, this is not the case. By and large, this statement never matched reality; it’s just that in the past, getting into a university was almost the only possible way to enter a profession, because there simply were no other ways to obtain the necessary theoretical knowledge.
But times have changed: the Internet appeared, and barriers on the path of a knowledge seeker did not exactly completely collapse, but they became noticeably lower. Online learning at universities, specialized courses to level up professional skills and learn tools that have only just appeared in a particular field; working through complex disciplines in an interactive format and remote mentorship from top specialists—there are tons of opportunities for development. The world is already completely different, yet many continue to believe that the path to a good job lies exclusively through a university.
2. A flawed benchmark for comparison
All the way up to the moment they finish their studies and start looking for work, most students are trapped by a misconception called a flawed benchmark for comparison. Put simply, they compare themselves to their classmates and feel proud if they are doing better in their studies than the others.
This illusion persists until a person starts thinking about work and looks in a different direction. Because if students compared themselves with people already working in their future profession, they would see that they are approaching the goal in millimeter steps. And given how quickly technology evolves in many areas—perhaps they are even standing still.
So you do not need to compare yourself to your classmates. The best criterion for your knowledge and success will be the projects you have completed and your achievements at work, in real practice. Comparing yourself not with the gray mass around you, but with the market and the level of specialists who are actually working in your profession—that is far more correct.
3. Professional training is 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 care about what you know and can do in terms of skills that are in demand for the position you are applying for. Unfortunately, the educational system used by universities is aimed at putting as much general knowledge as possible into a student, turning them into a fairly erudite and broadly developed person (if you are lucky), but by no means into an important specialist.
That is why most graduates end up having to learn the profession directly—the one whose diploma title they devoted about five years of their lives to—already after graduating from the university. At their first job, which will not be easy to find either. Although it would seem that the university is exactly the place where yesterday’s school students are made into professionals. So why does real life turn out differently?
4. A university does not aim to make you a top-class professional
This is because most universities do not even try to train professionals who can work as specialists immediately after graduation. It is too difficult and complex a task—one that most educational institutions, except for the very top ones, simply cannot handle even in theory (at least within the traditional approach to education).
Therefore, instructors do only what they can: they provide students with a broad range of general information and instill the ability to memorize and process data. It is a valuable skill, but you will have to apply it to learning the profession itself on your own.
5. Lack of focus
If a person studies more than two subjects at the same time, they waste their time. Yesterday’s school students and university students will find this statement wrong. But more experienced people are more likely to agree with it.
In school, lessons are so short not because it is more efficient, but because it is hard for children to maintain concentration for more than an hour. But frequent switching between tasks prevents the brain from thinking effectively. And at work, you will be held to adult standards, and frequent switching between tasks will start to seriously reduce your productivity.
Why do you think we are able to prepare effectively for an exam on the last night before it, or finish most of a project in the two hours left before a deadline? We simply do not switch to other tasks. That is where the sharply increased efficiency comes from. Learning different subjects and sciences in small chunks is often completely ineffective compared to studying one topic with full focus on the process.
6. Years of university study are used extremely inefficiently by most people
Suppose you study something for two semesters. You have two lectures and two practical sessions per week. A serious approach by university standards. How many hours is that? 4 class periods of 2 academic hours (1.5 regular hours)—that is 6 hours per week. In the first semester, we study for 4 months: September, October, November, December. In the second—another 4: February, March, April, May. Total: 8 months of 4.5 weeks each and 6 hours per week. 216 hours per year. And an average month has 180 working hours.
It turns out that any year-long course can be mastered in just a month and a half, and if you want to (or need to)—in just a month. So multi-year university education, which for most people falls on the very peak years in terms of the ability to absorb knowledge, is one of the least effective periods of our lives.
— What’s good about studying at university?
— You are an unemployed alcoholic, and your parents are proud of you :)
7. Lack of practical skills, which are many times more valuable than theory
In life and at work, the result is always the top priority—and achieving it requires practical actions. And knowledge of theory is worth almost nothing without practice. This is precisely one of the weakest sides of modern higher education: the foundation of any university program is teaching theory, which students will need to learn to apply on their own later.
That is why brilliant students who graduate with excellent grades often do not achieve noticeable results in life, while slackers and C students—who often do not have higher education at all—eventually become super successful.
Only practice matters in life. The more knowledge you have at the expense of skills, the less useful it is. A huge baggage of theory that is not applied in practice often turns into a liability in real life, dragging you down. It is sad, but true.
8. Universities teach general and outdated knowledge
But even the theory that traditional education inevitably emphasizes often turns out not to be of the right quality. The world works in such a way that theory follows practice, not the other way around. Therefore, the knowledge taught at universities is often, so to speak, not the freshest—especially in those universities that plainly do not aim for top spots among the best educational institutions in the world.
Instructors, even the most successful ones, have spent most of their own careers developing the skill of teaching students, not practicing the profession they teach, and they do not have—and cannot have—the depth of knowledge that an experienced, in-demand, market-ready practitioner has.
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