Since the advent of the 21st century, new complications and pressures have immensely challenged the traditional purpose of higher education. Today’s knowledge realm requires highly skilled personnel in all fields so as to be able to deal with the rapid technological changes occurring. To effectively meet the current societal needs, curriculum and policies are undergoing restructuring, in many higher education institutions so as to ensure that all the grandaunts possess the desired attributes to cope with the changing societal and economic trends. Apart from providing financial security through higher chances of landing well-paying job more than a high school diploma holder, college education is important in building an educated society that is fair and just. Therefore, the ultimate purpose of a college degree is simply to mould our society by making it a better place to live.
Nonetheless, the most notable purpose for acquiring a college degree is arguably getting a satisfying and well-paying job. According to her article learning by Degrees, Rebecca Mead talks about the monetary benefits of going to college by giving examples of various degrees, their hiring rate and also the expected pay. For instance, she explains that, for the students who are pursuing a degree in business, they have a 44% chance of getting of being hired into their desired jobs right out of college, while, on the other hand, students majoring in economics normally have a good starting salary of around $50,000 per year and may increase up to $150,000 by the time they are about to retire (mead 2010). She claims that there is a high demand of college degree holders in the workforce, and it is for this reason that the pay is high thus proving a lifetime earning potential. In addition to personal benefits in regard to increased salaries, a college degree holder also has an increased access to both pension plans a health insurance cover. Therefore, when considering the financial benefits for the individual, a college degree translates into higher job opportunities, bigger pay check and access to other extra services such as higher pension scheme and insurance cover.
Apart from the financial benefits that are explained to be the main rewards of acquiring a college degree, there is also the important reward of properly preparing the students for real life situations. Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa explains in their book Academically adrift that, higher education is generally designed to disseminate and create knowledge. This knowledge is highly helpful for the individual in regard to handling contemporary problems in the real world, fostering for more advanced entrepreneurial thinking and also in developing problem solving abilities that are based on a higher level of cognitive thinking. Evidently, receiving a college degree empowers an individual to become self-reliant, thus making him strong enough to be able to look after themselves in any given situation. Through critical thinking, one is able to discern what is good and bad when faced with tricky situations.
After few days of joining college, many students become aware that time management is critical to the success in almost everything that they involve themselves into. They learn how to plan ahead and work with tight deadlines; this newly acquired skill becomes a vital skill when an individual graduates and joins the real world. In the other half of her article, Rebecca Mead sheds light on how higher education can benefit a student by enhancing their “habit of mind”. According to this article, habits of the mind are designed to nurture critical thought, develop the ability of not only listening actively, but also being able to respond intelligently, and most importantly, exposing the learners to signal accomplishments of humankind (mead 2010).
When perceived beyond the conventional boundaries, education forms the essence to almost all action in our life (Mead 2010). Arguably, whatever we do is as a result of what we have learned and adopted either through assimilation, observation or instructions. Therefore, it is for this reason that a particular society can be judged to being of illiterate of literate people based on the actions that they do. A college degree will at the end be of immense significance to a particular society in the sense that, most of the people in the society would be educated, and thus all the individual benefits that are related to gaining a college degree will ultimately find its way to the larger society. For instance, in case a highly professional task is required in a particular society, the need of outsourcing for this services would not arise since there are professionals who are members of that community who can handle such tasks. This provides an advantage to the community through easy access to professional services and saving on costs.
In addition, the people in a society who have amassed higher education degrees, are the people who largely steer the path of development in their communities and the general progress in a given country. Some of these individuals are the politicians, scientists, investors and activists who work together to form the backbone of their society. Arguably, without this vital pool of intellects, the societal framework would crumble easily, thereby creating loopholes for anarchy, violence and degradation. However, there also exists critics of college education. Some argue that it is a waste of time while others claim that it is not worth the cost and time. This has been further expounded by Arum and Roska, where they claim that some people consider the four years as an undergraduate to making little difference in the way an individual thinks and their ability to synthesize complex ideas and knowledge into real life use (p. 121). This is to a large extent fallacious since there is numerous evidence that most people develop and polishes their interpersonal, professional and entrepreneurial abilities in college.
Works Cited
Arum, Richard, and Josipa Roksa. Academically adrift: Limited learning on college
campuses. University of Chicago Press, 2011.
Mead, Rebecca. Learning By Degrees. The New Yorker. Web, 2010. Retrieved, March 27,
2014
