What higher education truly offers in today's world.
In an ever-changing world, a major force of debate in recent times has been about the role and shape of the current system of education. At least once every week, in one way or the other, the topic filters through one's ears. In whatever format it may come: "school na scam," "no need for first class," "learn a skill," "these courses are not useful." These tropes are quite common.
These statements usually come from a place of frustration: people trying to make sense of a system that often feels disconnected from the realities of the job market or everyday life. I've heard them from peers, online conversations, and even in quiet moments of self-reflection.
Like life, all these ideas are neither entirely true nor entirely false. Some may lean more right than wrong, and some more wrong than right. A lot of grey areas. I, like many others, have varying ideas as to where this line will be drawn. It's not always easy to place yourself firmly on one side. You can see someone thriving because they learned a skill, and at the same time, see someone else open doors because of a degree. So the question isn't always whether education is worth it, but rather: what kind of value are we really meant to get from it?
Looking back to the foundations of higher education, I think the greatest asset one can get is simply the ability to entertain a second school of thought. Many people without universities tend to live within a very linear reality, a bubble. Higher education's most important service is to teach the individual how to entertain opposing schools of thought, analyze them, internalize them, and then argue for or against while presenting your opinions in a logical manner. This is present across all disciplines and schools.
This is something I've grown to appreciate more deeply over time. Not in the lectures alone, but in debates with classmates, exposure to different worldviews, or being challenged by people who see things completely differently from me. That ability to pause and think before reacting, to weigh ideas even when they clash with mine, is not just an academic skill. It's a life skill.
That's something I experienced firsthand. It wasn't the classes alone. It was the debates after class, the arguments during group work, even the random conversations in the hostel. They stretched how I thought, not just what I thought.
That, to me, is where education truly starts: not in knowing more than others, but in being willing to unlearn, relearn, and engage without fear.
This, I feel, is and should be the forefront of higher education, and it serves the best purpose for society. In the current day and time, it is so often the case that people are unable to entertain opposing schools of thought without feeling attacked, and sometimes end up creating bubbles or echo chambers. The only way a society can progress is if the majority of its citizens can rise above their prejudices and unlearn their internalized biases.
That's the real value: not just producing workers, but growing minds that can hold space for complexity. People who can disagree respectfully, think independently, and stay open to learning. Without that, we stay stuck, as individuals and as a society.
Originally published on Medium.