university education should solely prepare students for employment opportunities
...ld train students to acquire these skills. This means less focus on academic subjects (like mathematics and history) and more on vocational subjects like law, engineering and business. However, I am not convinced that this strategy is good for students, employers or universities. I believe that universities’ primary role should be to “educate” rather than “train” their students. There are two reasons for this: The first reason is that society benefits more when universities function as centers of learning, rather than training centers. Hugely important bodies of scientific, historical and artistic knowledge are stored in universities. By restricting universities to function merely as training centers, there is a high risk of losing this knowledge. The second reason is that universities cannot accurately predict the skills that employers will require. Instead, they can provide education that can be easily applied in any present or future employment context. Academic degree courses like mathematics and history can teach students numeric s...