On the True Value of College Education

The True Value of University Education: Where Does It Lie?

Author: admin Date: 2011-3-6 11:43:47 Popularity: Tags:

Under the banner of equal teaching opportunities, the expansion of university enrollment has enabled more and more Chinese students to enter university. However, has your four-year life in the ivory tower borne fruit for you, or has it wasted your youth? Has a diploma truly become your entry ticket to success?

Whether it's a junior college or a university, whether it's Peking University or Jiaotong University, or some other lesser-known university, if you study computer science, they all seem to produce fools. Why is that? Firstly, university computer courses mainly focus on system languages/principles, networking, etc., and the classes are repetitive broadcast-style lectures every year. The basic skills still rely on self-study after class, so what advantages does attending university provide? Wouldn't it be better to just buy a book, download some videos online, and ask questions on the internet when you encounter problems? Isn't this a better way without wasting money on university tuition? Instead, wouldn't it be better to donate to charity? After graduation, you can only obtain a junior college diploma, but nowadays such diplomas have lost their value. Companies require international professional certifications, like Cisco from the internet. If that's the case, why not self-study and then take exams to get certificates? Skills plus certificates, if companies require academic qualifications, you could always enroll in adult education later, and by then, aren't you still considered a university graduate? Anyway, eating depends on skills, not a diploma.

Ironically, as China's economy rapidly expands, the value of a university diploma is decreasing. Many university graduates have invested a lot of effort into education and training, but they haven't received the expected returns. Why is that? Is China no longer in need of knowledge workers?

In the past decade, the enrollment scale of China's higher education has increased sevenfold, and now it outputs nearly 6 million junior college graduates annually. Shouldn't these students benefit from the educational credentials they've obtained, avoiding the fate of being worth only as much as a cabbage?

The key issue lies in the disorder of China's higher education system.

With the rapid expansion of higher education, China's education system has shown signs of stratification, gradually forming a strict hierarchical system. Only a few elite universities (about 100 in total) stand at the top of this hierarchy, able to avoid the impact of university expansion. Meanwhile, the vast majority (around 95%) of mid-level institutions have had to absorb the expanded enrollment scale.

Key universities can enjoy national funding and gain more social resources, while mid-level institutions have to seek more market forces, meaning they must enroll more students to ensure their revenue.

The growing gap between the two inevitably leads to the decline in the quality of education in many higher education institutions, especially newly established schools and private schools, which face the dilemma of faculty shortages.

Worse still, many universities prefer to offer "soft" majors, such as accounting, business/public administration, international trade, and foreign languages. These popular courses do not require many resources and thus become an effective path for university expansion. Although students graduating from these majors are favored by the job market, the surge in student numbers leads to an imbalance in market supply and demand.

With the development of the market economy, the division of labor in China's job market has naturally emerged. Graduates from key universities and "hard" majors (such as science and technology) can find better opportunities in the primary job market, which emphasizes knowledge and skills.

Graduates with diplomas from mid-level institutions and "soft" majors are more likely to face the secondary job market, characterized by low salaries and high-intensity work.

Nevertheless, as China's economy matures, more opportunities will emerge. Those holding university diplomas, regardless of their major, will benefit. In the long term, most university graduates' salaries will show an increasing trend.

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