OFFERING A UTILITARIAN MODEL FOR HIGHER EDUCATION: In the era of machine superintelligence.
The persistent trades and crafts questions about higher education are valid in many ways.
Many in society mainly want to enhance their livelihoods and survival by improving their income earning opportunities.
Those who fall into the open-to-learn anything group are also there. Then there are the natural scientists, engineers and other domain specialists.
Each group sees tertiary education from different perspectives and all groups have valid reasons and concerns.
These debates only arise out of poor or distorted communication that appears to pitch one group against another. That is unnecessary and futile.
Every subject matter must exist as long as people are interested in signing up.
If certain expertise are badly needed the economic incentive structure will motivate people to consider those fields.
If natural selection works against the population in that domain, the same economic incentive structure would encourage expatriates to be employed from abroad to make up the shortfall.
Humanities degrees often gets caught up in the whirlwind of these jobs/degrees debates because they are often the largest part of every university system and the cost of course delivery are much lower compared to the cost of running degree programs for health, natural and engineering sciences.
This can be seen in many of the new private universities majoring in Humanities first before adding on the other disciplines later.
Aside the cost of programs situation, there is also the historical perspective of humanities having been the earliest subjects in higher education starting with theology, philosophy and the study of religions, the study of languages, mathematics, history and culture, archaeology, anthropology, etc.
Many early scholars were theologians and language specialists who studied languages to translate religious texts.
Geography, Surveying and Mapping stood tall in higher education because as civilizations grew these experts were needed.
NEEDED.
Need always drive pursuits. So we should not worry when questions about the economic importance of university degrees rises.
I appreciate the utilitarian model of higher and I would argue for a more radical approach. That requires degree courses to aspire to ensure it’s graduates can secure their livelihoods within a decade of graduating. That should be the definition of tier 1 university degrees.
Courses that cannot compete at this level should be in tier 2, underfunded and mainly offered on distance and continuing education modes.
The utilitarian approach recognizes the existential challenges that many people face. I have seen several students struggle after school due to the passing of a parent or both shortly after graduation.
Such students often with younger siblings do not have the opportunity to explore open-courses that do not have immediate and high paying job prospects. Many have had to take on all sorts of jobs to survive.
They could have been doing those gigs right after SHS to start earning money if the tier 2 model existed. So that they work, earn money and study at the same time.
And if they had to qualify for a tier 1 course, it would be well funded with immediate and high paying jobs waiting for them.
Such tier one students after a decade of top economic performance and success can invest earnings and switch to tier 2 courses and diversify their education and career activities.
This is a model that is designed for the 21st century and fit for the economic challenges facing all of us. The inefficiency in translating education into immediate economic gains is an existential threat and a major cause of economic underdevelopment.
Let’s also remember the armed forces of every country operates a system that when adopted in some form and function for the general population will yield fantastic benefits. After the armed forces institutions come institutions that train health professionals. These two institutions operate a practice and critical mission first philosophy and operational culture that needs to be used across board.
