The University Farce

Dale J Stephens on the farce that is university education:

"Going to college is meant to be the culmination of 12 years of hard work, determination and study. You're told that if you get good grades, ace your tests and do lots of extracurriculars, you'll get into a good university. The reasoning seems solid when you're at secondary school - after all, everyone tells you that university graduates earn more and are less likely to be unemployed.

I enrolled... However any idealism was quickly squashed. For the most part, people weren't there to learn - they were there to party, and hangovers permitting, learn something along the way. I started asking questions."

Dale J Stephens, Wired Magazine, March/April 2013.

Now here's Alex Aldridge from Legal Cheek:

"A turning point in my life was when I ran out of excuses to do more higher education. On reflection, my English literature degree (four years), GDL (one year) and BPTC (one year) amount to a massive waste of time and money. Indeed, if I could do it all again, I wouldn't even go to university.

But perhaps, as a middle class person whose university lecturer parents placed a high value on education, these were just the hoops I was destined to jump through. I just thank God that law schools weren't offering free further courses to their jobless alumni – as BPP announced it is to do last week – when I was graduating..."


"Having a career didn't only lift me out of post-law school gloom, but it has made me happier generally than when I was a student. As the thrusting execs at the helm of BPP well know, it feels good to develop a skill that generates money which you can then use to build a life of your own. Rather than getting bums on seats to fill obscure, apparently unsubscribed courses, they should let their graduates move on."

University is like part time job...