The Value of University Education - Research Paper Example

?(Add (Add (Add The Value of Education Introduction Ever since the emergence of a civilized community life, the need for transmitting the knowledge acquired by human being from various sources became necessary for the wellbeing of every next generation. The very thought of such cultural and scientific teachings for the future references emerged the thought of organized schooling. In due course of time, the collective learning programs designed for students created the idea of schools and colleges in dealing with the required fields of education for the aspirants. Gradual developments in the field of educational grading and prescribed patterns of course designs in various trades evolved the institution of higher education centers called the universities. Presently, the academic sector of the entire globe is monitored by different universities according to the standards and expectations set by them. As the employment sector has grown enormously out of proportion with equal rise in merit expectations and with the conceptual development in business thoughts, employers have identified the need for acquiring high-end brains among the university graduates. Under the prevailing conditions in which successful university education is becoming the paramount demand for acquiring a position in better companies, a comparative study of the values of the two educational streams – university graduation and high school graduation – is necessary for better understanding the prospects of the students from either stream. Strength of University Graduation The prime edge of the university education is it adds value to the knowledge of individuals from the socio-ethical perspective beyond the limited time-bound courses most of the students learn for fixing their position in the job market. While studying in a university campus, the students get elaborate exposure to different cultural and ethnic groups. This exposure takes them to the heights where they shine in the glory of technical aspects of their educational trade with ethical concern and social responsibility. According to certain observations “university degrees provide students with the knowledge and skills that help make their lives meaningful and rewarding, and strengthen their contributions to society” (“Ensuring the values…”). A graduation from a reputed university doubtlessly guarantees all spheres of qualification for the student – spiritual strength, academic excellence, forbearance and sprit of competition, which eventually turns them fit for adapting to changing conditions of professional ambience. The spiritual merit of an individual plays a vital role in the formation of his successful personal life with capabilities to accept challenges and workout plans for action in a perfect way. From the academic point of view, students obtain grass-root level standard of knowledge with enough practical experiences and the element of group learning by studying in a university. The prospects of patience containing competitive spirit help students frame sufficient amount of self discipline which is a requirement for achieving higher targets. Moreover, a graduation from the university enables them to prepare themselves for better careers or for choosing higher education in various streams of excellence. The provision for graduate level expectations set by universities also helps students and educators estimate the desired standards of education students are expected to attain from their university graduation. This systematized training and evaluation pattern helps the hirers and policy makers in designing the courses according to the standards set for the academic as well as professional qualifications for separate careers. Benefits of university education – individuals and society The importance of higher education from a university is reflected in the field of modern business world. It also provides better living standards and stability of income for the successful candidate as the investors of business are aiming at procuring high quality staff with long term commitment. Educational exploration in advanced fields of science and technology in the recent time has attained the attention of various corporate firms who adopt the campus selection and scholarship schemes for excellent students. Enhancing academic skills at university level evidently help students claim their position in better income groups in the society by entering the employment sector of multinational companies. There are also estimations that the average earnings of experienced employees with a university education background remain much higher than those with trade diplomas or graduate schooling. The hiring angle of the corporate sector focuses largely on the quality of the institution and the reputation of the university more than individual performance levels; as a result, it is visible that exposure from a better university is the basic platform for easy approval of employers. Another advantage of university education to individual is the sound knowledge and the perfection of technical aspects in the field of their choice that guarantees them sufficient backup for their social wellbeing. A population with quality higher education from university backup also enables the society to progress in cultural and economic angles. A proportionate relationship exists between the number of university graduates and the growth rate of the economic conditions of the society in every country. When the rise of the new business world tremendously changed the expectations of its stakeholders, employment sectors became wider for competent candidates. As such, with more employers preferring to hire from university graduates, the need for enhanced higher education became primary among students. In every sense, the promotional opportunities of university education in the employment sector made a renaissance in the outlook of the young generation. The aspect of quality academic merit as a relationship with societal growth is a vicious cycle, in which better students form better societies and vice versa. Potential growth in earning capacity formed by excellent educational background is a boon for the young aspirants in achieving their dream careers along with a disciplined social approach. Moreover, the contribution of universities in the field of advanced learning effectively created productive labor force in almost every field. As Hill, Hoffman and Rex point out, as a disguised benefit of university education to the society, the areas and communities with large proportions of educated workforce experience decreased crime rate, reduced demand for government attention for social welfare and above all, increasing tendency of personal health and social integrity among individuals. All these factors indirectly promote social harmony and better community life of human beings. Investigation of non-university education Academic experts and corporate evaluators consider the prospect of educational background of the candidate through the university stream many times higher than that of the grad-school and diplomas in the creative front. The contribution and achievements expected from the latter classification cannot be comparable with the merits of university students. The long term effectiveness of the employees in a work field is largely found stable in case of the former ones. However, there are several reasons that promote the stipulated course patterns and job-oriented learning packages for students. In the corporate world, there is unlimited opportunities for youngsters to exhibit their talent; therefore, most of the students prefer to pursue a normal graduation from any school of learning and put their effort in time-bound courses that guarantees them easy career. From the employers’ angle, it is easy for them to accept the intellect of the job-oriented youths. In this trend, it is a general tendency of some employers to reject the applications with higher education matching with high salary expectation. When considering the point of attaining a job easily after graduation, it sometimes looks better for students to run in pursuit of employers with willingness to accept them anyhow. Enormous pressure on the employers for profitable running of the business is the basic factor that operates the degradation of standards in individual performance. In the present trend of competitive socio-economic conditions in the job market, even students are not willing to realize that the positions they occupy may not last long and for their sustainable individual growth in the long run, they need to acquire higher level educational standards. From another angle of view, the excessive booms of job consultants and corporate tie-ups with hiring agencies seem promoting the poor branding of esteem professions with offers of easy access through short term course patterns. While considering the ethical and peripheral elements of university education, one can easily identify the superiority of the university graduates over the non-university students. The stereotyped mechanical learning aimed at creating human machines for specific tasks is the primary assignment of almost all such diplomas. Such students with limited cultural and social exposure during their studies cannot guarantee their personal success or their active involvement in an organizational set up. The impairment in their ethical and spiritual achievements that are expected to be attained during the university education can drag them back from changing situations at workplace. Hence in all opinions, it can be seen that university students are perfectly well over their counterparts in every field of professional and personal excellence. In a widely regarded opinion, “A research scholar in general has a higher level of energy than the non-scholar” (Stigler). More emphatically, the modern economic world is looking for aspirants with multi-level talents to meet the possible challenges of every business. By stating this, it does not mean that undergraduates have to be ruled out from the race for jobs, but the primary concern of this argument is the focus on advanced learning tendencies for productive personality building along with unchallenged potential to perform with differently suitable or rather competitive professional conflicts. University Education and its Economic Value The element of economic angle of university education has been discussed for a long time since the globalization and its contribution to the standards of human expectations about life. The economic perspective of education at higher level from a university is subject to the scrutiny in various angles. In the trends of increasing cost and system-based learning requirements of the present-day education, the source of funds and amenities for institutional teaching is largely expensive and highly professionalized. The increase in costs for all the aspects related to university studies varying from graduation to research studies has a direct impact on the financial status of the students and the institution. As a remedial measure to supplement the survival of educational organizations and universities, some governments introduced the privatization of institutions. American and Asian countries are presently providing the benefit to students and to the society by finding investors and academy promoters to employ their capital for running universities. With more and more corporate ownerships coming to undertake university management, the sophistication of higher education became all the more possible. However, these ventures are facing the challenges from the online degree courses introduced by new investors. Such online courses offer the academic stream equal to that of campus education while saving a lot of time and money of the students. The US and the European countries are leading providers of online degrees presently, but the standard of education expected from such degrees are considered lower than those obtained through campus education. The initial favor of reduced expenditure from online degrees however hits back at students when they try to find a rewarding career in the large world of corporate sector. It shows that university degrees enable students to attain a position where they can demand for everything they deserve in the form of monetary and spiritual benefits. Finding a lucrative job is the most common faith of every university student, and in this trial, most of them find their position safe with more flexibility to change their employers up to their expectations. According to Dresch, university graduation is a conceptual product of the continuous and result oriented interaction of individuals with different intellectual levels for ensuring the quality and standards expected by students by which they can assure their successful career opportunities after their studies (61). However, setting up a university and managing it with courses required for the expected merit of the future labor forces is really a challenging task for most of the private institutional ownerships. In this regard, the governments of several countries take the prospect of higher studies as their fundamental duty to promote quality human resource for the overall development of the economy. Especially for fields of higher studies in science and engineering, the cost involvement is more and the actual tuition fee remains unbearable for most of the meritorious students. Inability to pay the fee for higher education in specific fields of scientific excellence has a negative impact on both individuals and the governments. From one angle, the tendency of the students to shift from desired to courses to less expensive studies results in their general disinterest and aimlessness in the future life towards their career; on the other side of it, the governments are subject to incurring a heavy loss in quality human resource in science and technology. Therefore, while the governments are considering the funding of university education, it reduces the cost of hired brilliance in the long run. Conclusion The present world of rapid economic changes in the business sector and increasing competitiveness among candidacy of students jointly require high quality educational perfection in all fields for attaining desirable positions. University education has its leading identity in the global academic system as it promotes productively modified professionals for meeting the requirements of the employers while continuing to substantiate the socio-economic growth of the human community. In an overview, higher education form prestigious universities offers guaranteed perfection in long term careers whereby the expectations of individuals as well as the governments are equally met. Moreover, educational enhancement of the young generation makes the platform for a peaceful and culturally rich society in which business owners find their interest to invest their money. The increasing demand for standardized and rather professionalized education in the modern economic world is an indicator of the value of university education. In order to stabilize the intellectual standards of the young generation, the governments and the universities have to work together with an objective of expanding the economic values of education by promoting a creative and more productive workforce in every part of the world. Works Cited Dresch, Stephen P. An Economic Perspective on the Evolution of Graduate Education: A Technical Report Presented to the National Board on Graduate Education. Wahington, D. C: National Academies, 1974. Print. “Ensuring the values of university degrees in Ontario: A guide to learning outcomes, degree level expectations and the quality assurance process in Ontario.” Council of Ontario University. (n.d): 1-24. Web. 11 April 2012. Hill, Kent, Hoffman, Dennis & Rex, Tom R. “The value of higher education: Individual and societal benefits (with special considerations for the state of Arizona).” Arizona State University. (2005): 1-65. Web. 11 April 2012. Stigler, George J. “The future of higher education: An economic perspective.” Center for the Study of the Economy and the State. (1989): 1-21. Web. 11 April 2012. Read More