Variations in the university degrees - Essay Example

Variations in the university degreesIntroductionGraduates with certain majors are more likely to be employed and financially stable in the future than others. Humanities or art majors graduates are to a larger extent going to be find less employment opportunities than those who majored for instance in science courses. To this end, there is a lot of debate as to whether universities should invest in majors that will not lead to successful careers or continue in offering diverse courses. Such degree courses that do not pay more should be offered so as to increase the range of majors to students can select so as to diversify their talents and abilities.

Others have argued against this view on the basis that such majors with low income leads to less motivation among graduates. The outcome of degree courses vary in terms of earnings and chances of securing job opportunities, some tend to earn more while others are less paying and as a result, universities should not stop offering some majors on that basis but they should continue offering diverse majors so as to increase diversity and capacity among graduates.The technicalities in some degree course offers an explanation as to why student who have graduated with those courses are likely to earn more than others.

A case in point is seen among graduates in the field of medicine (Ginsberg, 2013). They have to take more time in the university while pursuing their programs as opposed to other courses such as arts and social sciences. Those who have done medicine have the right to receive more pay as the course is very technical and demands a lot of concentration and accuracy. Another example is seen in the engineering courses that require practical applications as opposed to being theoretical in nature. From an economic standpoint, it would be pointless to attend college unless a student achieved some sort of benefit by doing so.

This benefit might be in the form of increased earnings, more certain employment, some sort of non-monetary return but it must be great enough to offset the cost of attendance. Boehm and Lees-Spalding (2006) describes on-the-job training as a form of human capital investment. In their arguments, they present definitions of two different types of training that can occur. General training is useful to many firms and is therefore applicable to a wide range of jobs. However, it is vital that even as universities should stop offering majors that are not proven to lead into successful careers, it is imperative that they continue on a lesser scale to do so since they still need new streams of income especially in the wake of major cut funds from the governments.

For instance in Florida's college and university system. The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) released a list of the starting salaries of recent college graduates reporting that computer engineering majors were making on aver- age $53,117 a year, over twice as much as the lowest ranking major on the list: psychology (Kennedy, 1998). This shows that some majors are more marketable than others. ConclusionAll majors cannot be the same in terms of their technicalities hence the reason for variation in earnings.

Offering of less paying majors should continue as they will help reduce the increasing unemployment rate. ReferencesKennedy, D. (1998). Academic duty. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.Ginsberg, B. (2013). The fall of the faculty: The rise of the all-administrative university and why it matters.Boehm, K., & Lees-Spalding, J. (2006). Student book 2007: The essential guide for applicants to UK universities and colleges. Richmond: Trotman.