“If P then Q”, the argument is made. “Without P, you’ll never obtain Q”. Almost snorted, the rebuttal is offered, “But an instance of Q and not P. You’re argument is rubbish, you are rubbish”.
Bill Gates never graduated from University. This much is true. Mostly. Harvard did award him with a Law qualification in 2007. Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg also dropped out of college, in company with what is likely millions of successful college drop outs. The importance of these facts are often abused, and to my mind mostly miss-attributed.
There has been some talk in the Australian media of late, lamenting the increasingly high University drop-out rates. This may be a concern. It is potentially evidence of a growing divide between the expectations of students and those of educational institutions. Of course it could be that a degree is no longer worth what it once was.
A study in 2016 found that between 2008 and 2014, fewer than half of new Australian University graduates found full time employment. A tertiary qualification has long been associated with future financial success. As this perception breaks down, the demand for degree qualifications is likely to decrease. A failure to graduate is not necessarily the same as a failure to learn, it is indicative only of a not becoming accredited.
There are certainly issues with our educational system that need addressing. Some of these issues are even likely reflected in the high drop out rates. But what if dropout rates were zero? The employment outcomes for graduates are falling. The competitive advantage of possessing a degree is being diluted, an issue that unlikely to be improved by accrediting more graduates.
Education is important. Perhaps it is time though to discuss the implicit link between education, accreditation, and economic success. Particularly when this implicit link is expressed the wrong way around. I would argue that we need an educated population more than an accredited one.
Bill gates never graduated from university. He did however attend university, and while it is true to say he didn’t get a degree, it isn’t true to say that he didn’t get an education. While at Harvard in addition to his pre-Law courses, Gates studied Maths, and Computer Science courses. While at Harvard he developed a solution to a mathematical sorting problem, that was later published in the Journal of Discrete Mathematics. To state “Bill Gates never graduated, so his time spent at university was of little importance” is to commit a significant over-simplification.
It is easy to overplay the Bill-Gates-Never-Graduated card. While it is worth while pointing out that a degree isn’t the only path to success, it is still true that a degree opens many doors that would be closed to one otherwise. For me the importance of the Bill-Gates-Never-Graduated tale lays else-where.
Bill Gates attended University, and received exactly the education he needed to pursue his goals. This is also a significant over-simplification. This statement however, recognises that the important aspects of education are the knowledge and skills, not the accreditation. This is especially true in emerging, or rapidly growing economic sectors, such as the landscape into which Microsoft was born.
In fact this is something pointed out by Deb Eckersley (managing partner of human capital at Pricewaterhouse-Coopers Australia) during an interview on ABC Radio National in January 2016;
We find that people coming out of uni have often studied one thing very deeply but what our clients and what the business community is looking for more broadly is a diversity of skills.
It is a statement that actually, an accreditation on its own, isn’t necessarily enough. Skills are what are needed. Is it a concern then, that students are failing to complete their degree in “Marketing Yellow Things, On Tuesday Afternoons”? Should we even be surprised?
There are certain skills we expect people in certain positions to hold. We have expectations for our Doctors, our Lawyers, our Engineers, our Chemists, and many others. The prescribed program degree format still has much to offer. I am also a firm supporter of the role of broad degree programs such as Bachelor of Arts. Many roles however, require very few specific skills and knowledge, beyond a demonstrable aptitude, and ability to learn. The prescribed program degree model is perhaps not the best fit for these roles, at least not in a form that targets a particular Major to a particular career path.
In broad, some-what overplayed strokes it might be said that a degree does not necessarily represent an education. Employers might more readily recognise an education that comes without a degree.
There has been a significant growth in enrollment in online study options over the last few years. One of the main advantages of this type of learning is ability to update a particular skill area quickly. There is’t the need to commit potentially 3-6 years studying, when all you need is to be slightly better at statistics, or recently for myself, a particular programming language. These courses are also hugely flexible in their delivery, so they can be fit around an existing work, family, or social schedule with relative ease.
The rise in drop-out rates may be a signal of something fundamentally wrong with our educational systems. It is worth a thought though, is this an issue of education, or of accreditation?
Thoughtful Wander 