What If a University Was Only Designed to Produce Workers?

By Rhett Allain. What is the goal of a university? Why do humans get college degrees? Here are some common options for why a human should go to college and earn a degree.

• Humans should earn a degree so that they can get good grades. You might think this is a joke of a reason, but it’s not. Many people actually think this way.
• Get a degree to get a job.
• Get a degree to prepare you for a job (this is slightly different than the previous).
• Go to college to learn to think – critical thinking skills.
• Graduate from college with a degree to boost the university’s graduation rate.
• College is all about the party and fun times. Meet some people too.

But what do I think is the reason to go to college? I pretty much agree with Chris Lee in this very insightful post about higher education. We like to say that the structure of courses in a university degree program are designed to promote critical thinking, but this isn’t always true. More...