Is a University Degree Still Worth Anything?

[Btcdeybodi]

And I think such degrees are worthless, at the end of the day they are completely worthless, where they cannot apply the knowledge they have learned in real life, but acquiring them means wasting all your time and money. Just having a degree on paper does not make anyone successful, to be successful you need real skills, otherwise they will be limited to just a paper degree, it will not be of any use in your life. So to achieve your own success, only if you can utilize that opportunity, then you will be successful, and you have to prepare yourself for this, not only having a degree is not enough, you have to have real skills, strategies, creativity, these are the main ingredients of success in today's time.

The problem is that there are people who went to study a course that their friend is studying or they are studying a course that their parents suggested for them or even persuaded them to study it but it wasn't the course they had in mind to study and it has become a very big problem for some graduates because imagine studying in a field that you aren't familiar with, no matter the time that you spend studying it might still look like you wasted your time all those years in the university. Another thing is that due to the fact that most graduates doesn't have a job gave some undergraduates the fear that they might also graduate and not get a work which made them to find jobs that distracts them from studying while they are still in school and some of them used corrupt ways to earn their degrees through malpractices and sorting their lecturers. What has also discouraged people from being so rooted in their course of study is that you will see people that did not even study in a particular field but they are the ones that are being hired to do a job while the people who actually studied in that field are left behind so these experiences makes some people not to put in much effort in their studies. People no longer even care about their degrees, they are mostly looking and searching for ways to make quick money.

[Iamgoat]

I always consider networking as one of fundamental factor that bring success, university is really suited to build a solid networking and to get started.

You will find everyone with different set of background and capability. That's where the importance of university comes. As for the degree, it's good to help applying job but after that your experience and skill will determine the success.

It's basically like a ticket and the rest depends on your performance.

I like your submission. It is on point. This is what I would have ordinarily said too. Let us keep the classroom sessions aside, life in campus is way beyond just the classroom lectures but more of the networking and building purposeful relationships which will help you today or in future. I am not suggesting anyone to live a parasitic relationship or any relationship with greed. I am rather suggesting we build a robust relationship which will come with opportunity where you and your friends are able to harness our respective strengths to build a nation of ideas and problem solving.

If you allow me, I can give several examples of university friends who built fortunes for themselves using their network of ideas and initiatives. Let's start with the popular ones which includes Mark Zuckerberg and his roommates Chris Hughes, Eduardo and Moskovitz. There guys where friends and roommates who used their friendship to partner and co found what we popularly know as Facebook, now Meta company. The second one consist of Bill gates and Paul Allen who both met at the college at first and later still became university friends and used the friendship to build Microsoft. Larry page and his friend Sergey Brin also were good friends who barely met as PhD students in computer science and used their friendship to build the all mighty Google we use today.

In Nigeria, weve also got Opeyemi, Ayodeji and Olalekan who were friends in Obafemi Awolowo University came together to build one of the most popular and successful online jobs business in Nigeria today know as the Jobberman portal. What I can drive home from all of these examples I have cited is school or education is not a scam like some oftentimes refer to it. It only depends on how you lived your life in the universities.

[Abiky]

Degree certificate is good to get anywhere, but in some advanced countries, you will use it to get job once you are done from school so that you can impact the knowledge you have to the community ; but in some countries, it is not working that way especially in some countries where bribery and corruption is everywhere.

I feel like technology has grow to the extent where we see village degree as a liability because you can literally learn and get solution to anything you want in almost all fields online using google ir even the use of AI which has made work easier, and we have started seeing they AI is now taking the job of more than three human; therefore, if it is really not necessary to get a degree since tech is very where.

Well, now employers are getting stricter by requiring some level of experience alongside a college degree. In my case (IT/Computer Science field), you also need to be certified (COMPTIA, Security+, etc) to be able to qualify for a job. The reason why employers are more demanding nowadays is because of the AI craze. They're prioritizing quality over quantity (hence the massive layoffs from the tech industry). AI has made our lives easier, but it also changed things to a whole new level. The jobs market is now more challenging than ever, and we must pursue higher education if we want to stay afloat.

I've read somewhere that you also need experience to get an entry-level job. If it's someone with zero experience, getting a job would be impossible. Such is the case in developed countries. I wonder how developing (third-world) countries are doing in this regard?

[Cheema02]

And I think such degrees are worthless, at the end of the day they are completely worthless, where they cannot apply the knowledge they have learned in real life, but acquiring them means wasting all your time and money. Just having a degree on paper does not make anyone successful, to be successful you need real skills, otherwise they will be limited to just a paper degree, it will not be of any use in your life. So to achieve your own success, only if you can utilize that opportunity, then you will be successful, and you have to prepare yourself for this, not only having a degree is not enough, you have to have real skills, strategies, creativity, these are the main ingredients of success in today's time.

Yes, I agree with your It has became a reality that education doesn't matter in present time. Degrees are not confirmation of a strong earning or any resource which will support us. The poor people have dreams that their children will get education and oke day they will be in a good profession but it has really became a dream. They spend their money on education and degrees which are not even capable of providing them even a handsome salary. At this point their expectations are ruined and they blame their children for this. But they have to understand that its not their fault its the governance and their policies which are making poor people more people and strong are becoming more stronger. If we should focus on skills which can help us getting real results.

[tabas]

What age has grown past is going to school and depending only on the certificate for survival. The age hasn't grown pass a good school degree, getting education is now easier than back in the days, that makes plenty others eligible with the same certificate in the labor market available for the same labor.

It depends on the country where you'll be getting your education back then. But because many were developing in the past, I think that it's easier because of some programs that allows people to work and then be a beneficiary through studying and finishing their studies.

No matter how irrelevant it might be to get a job with your degree, don't be among those who don't see the need of going for the degree, opportunities come sometimes at the least moment we expect.

Only other people tells us that we're irrelevant with our degrees and jobs. But remember that it is not them that are providing food for us and paying our bills, it is us and so, we don't listen to those.

[Localhostspeed]

Yes, I agree with your It has became a reality that education doesn't matter in present time. Degrees are not confirmation of a strong earning or any resource which will support us. The poor people have dreams that their children will get education and oke day they will be in a good profession but it has really became a dream. They spend their money on education and degrees which are not even capable of providing them even a handsome salary. At this point their expectations are ruined and they blame their children for this. But they have to understand that its not their fault its the governance and their policies which are making poor people more people and strong are becoming more stronger. If we should focus on skills which can help us getting real results.

Education might not matter in this generation, but we need education to put people in good place. I don't know how people view it but someone with good morals and high level of education thinks differently from a common person with basic education. Their standards are not the same, their ways and focus are not the same, we can't run away from education else we are going to suffer the consequences.

My children will have good education, and graduate with at least 2.2 in any tertiary institution they found their self, it's not even a bargain.

[leonair]

Depends on where you live.

If the jobs vacancy require degree, pretty sure university degree is important.

If you live in a country who choose experience over degree and other theory thing, university degree isn't important anymore.

Many people that I met usually say this to me "the most important thing of school is you can make friends and relationship, they will help you in the future". So, I think university is important for the social benefit than the thing you learn since you can learn in work.

Yes, it is true that in many cases, depending on the location, a university degree is required to get a job there. In some places, if you have good skills, you will get a good job. But in some locations, you will need a university degree to get a good job. Apart from this, there are some professions like doctors, engineers, lawyers, magistrates, they definitely need an institutional degree as a certificate of validity of their skills. However, for those jobs for which a degree is not required, you can get hired without a degree, but a degree is required to maintain formalities.

[Salahmu]

The problem is that there are people who went to study a course that their friend is studying or they are studying a course that their parents suggested for them or even persuaded them to study it but it wasn't the course they had in mind to study and it has become a very big problem for some graduates because imagine studying in a field that you aren't familiar with, no matter the time that you spend studying it might still look like you wasted your time all those years in the university.

Is a good example of why some finished schooling but there is nothing for them to work, although they made us believe that there is no course someone will study that's not supposed to give them job but actually it is very rare to see one and sometimes is through a brotherly help or father that could work out for somebody to get a job they never studied in school because there is no how the person would see a job advert that only requires a chemical engineer and somebody with a banking certification will apply so actually courses matters sometimes and it shouldn't be the one they were persuaded to studied because the chances of coming out with knowledge of what was studied will be low.

[icebar]

Is university still worth it today? Are “extra skills” and certificates just another money-making trick? Has anyone here found success without a degree, or by learning something new outside of school? Is this the start of a new way of working, or just a big mess?

The number of people worldwide is increasing due to which there is a shortage of jobs. Earlier, common people used to get job opportunities after earning their degrees from the university but now there is no opportunity to get employment just by having a degree. Nowadays, to get a job, along with academic education, it is necessary to have skills. In some cases, it has been seen that only those who have good skills are being given job opportunities. Those who are trying to get a job only with a university degree must take skill-based education otherwise they will fall behind.

Since a large part of the world is still living an unemployed life, they definitely need technical education for their careers without wasting time. Without technical education, it is difficult to ever succeed in their careers.

[Unknown Op]

Is university still worth it today? Are “extra skills” and certificates just another money-making trick? Has anyone here found success without a degree, or by learning something new outside of school? Is this the start of a new way of working, or just a big mess?

The number of people worldwide is increasing due to which there is a shortage of jobs. Earlier, common people used to get job opportunities after earning their degrees from the university but now there is no opportunity to get employment just by having a degree. Nowadays, to get a job, along with academic education, it is necessary to have skills. In some cases, it has been seen that only those who have good skills are being given job opportunities. Those who are trying to get a job only with a university degree must take skill-based education otherwise they will fall behind.

Since a large part of the world is still living an unemployed life, they definitely need technical education for their careers without wasting time. Without technical education, it is difficult to ever succeed in their careers.

University degrees are very important for the poor person who have no money to survive in life because they need job to survive And they have no money to start a business because business need a money and poor people have only time and they could invest their time on job. Degrees are useful because they will get a good job and they will not do labour in the next days . But it is also important to understand that the degrees are taking a huge money And poor people are paying the fees with difficulty. They need support but their children are consuming the all money. Rich people have protocol in all fields because they  have money to pay to the power having people.Students should invest their time on learning the skills which could give them benefit in the future.

[HelliumZ]

If university degrees were not valuable or useful, people would never get a degree, and would even remain uneducated their entire lives. You get a degree not to get a job or to be useful, but to learn in life and to use the knowledge you gain for the benefit of humanity. A university student acquires various important knowledge from the great lecturers of the university while he is in the university. A student acquires that knowledge and uses it for the welfare of humanity and gives that acquired knowledge to the next generation. Some will establish their own business, some will become entrepreneurs, some will become admins of various organizations, university teachers, etc. Again, after studying at the university, some will take on the task of building the country, some will provide leadership at the national and international levels, etc. However, many people also study at the university out of the responsibility of being a good citizen. In no case will I say that a degree earned from a university is worthless.

[rat03gopoh]

Yes, I agree with your It has became a reality that education doesn't matter in present time.

I think you need to draw a line between education and degrees, and what "education" isn't important. Other forms of knowledge you don't get from school are informal forms of education.
Well, the world is changing so rapidly these days that, even within a matter of months, some school curricula are so specific and late to update that they seem outdated. It's another student's responsibility to absorb the most basic and contemporary academic knowledge.

[ancafe]

Is university still worth it today? Are “extra skills” and certificates just another money-making trick? Has anyone here found success without a degree, or by learning something new outside of school? Is this the start of a new way of working, or just a big mess?

What perspectives would you like to compare? I think college is still quite important for everyone, and sometimes people view it as unimportant because of the current limited job market. In the context of knowledge, education is still quite important for everyone because it allows us to gain knowledge, although sometimes people can still gain knowledge outside of formal education as usual.

Education and skills can be powerful for someone who has both, making it much easier to apply for jobs. In some countries, skills may be more important than education, but many countries also have specific requirements for employment, requiring educational certifications that align with their skills.

[Swordsoffreedom]

You say college degrees are useless, but did you know that most CEOs, leaders and people holding high positions in corporations have college degrees? It would be short-sighted to hastily declare that college degrees are useless just because a small portion of college graduates are unemployed without looking at the big picture.

They aren't bachelors' degrees though... they are MBAs and PhDs.

You're not going to become a CEO with just a bachelors' degree.

Your options are to "complete" higher education as in get all the diplomas they have to offer, and then you can be a scientist/politician/executive, or you drop out and go into entrepreneurship, because it's not worth it to spend $50k over 4 years to get a bachelors'.

But how can you get an MBA or become a PhD if you don't even have a bachelor's degree? Because as far as I know, in most cases, a bachelor's degree is a prerequisite if someone wants to go on to higher education.

As you said, a bachelor's degree cannot help someone become a CEO, so think about it, do people who don't even have a bachelor's degree have a chance to hold senior positions? Obviously, those who look down on and think that degrees are useless will have little or no chance of advancement compared to those who have degrees.

Education and degrees are not the only way to become rich and successful, but if we have the opportunity to possess it, let's grab it and not take it for granted.

[Zackz5000]

Depends. Healthcare is always high in demand. Dentists, nurses, medical doctors will have no problems getting a job no matter what happens. Even AI cannot take their jobs away.

The others? They seem dead unless you highly specialize in a field but then you need to be able to sustain yourself till you reach that stage and that’s why it seems it is not worth the wait.

If you ever want to get a job just because you finished college, go get a license that’s related to healthcare. Otherwise get ready to work way way harder just to land on a job.

You are correct the health department is always looking for workers i think this is true because i have seen it, the other seems dead unless you are highly connected expecially in Nigeria graduates finds it difficult to secure a job after graduation, most of them are in different field that don't relates to what they study in school. Most people don't know where their degree are because it hasn't help them get a job so they have abandoned it for skills and it is through this skills that most has been able to get one so learning a skill is far more better now than University Degree mine hasn't give me any job till now so it worth nothing to me.

[arwin100]

Is university still worth it today? Are “extra skills” and certificates just another money-making trick? Has anyone here found success without a degree, or by learning something new outside of school? Is this the start of a new way of working, or just a big mess?

What perspectives would you like to compare? I think college is still quite important for everyone, and sometimes people view it as unimportant because of the current limited job market. In the context of knowledge, education is still quite important for everyone because it allows us to gain knowledge, although sometimes people can still gain knowledge outside of formal education as usual.

Education and skills can be powerful for someone who has both, making it much easier to apply for jobs. In some countries, skills may be more important than education, but many countries also have specific requirements for employment, requiring educational certifications that align with their skills.

I strongly agree, since in outside world degree's are important. This is people safety net since they can build up good career if they can finish college.

People should not think about that its useless its because they are earning now on Bitcoin. Since earning here might be temporary for some people since we don't know what's going to happen in future since everything in this space is unstable. If it happens that they lose this earning option there's huge chance that they get broke and struggle to find job outside to sustain their daily needs.

So while they are young and capable finishing college should be their main priority and target to finish their degree to get more better future. Don't risk everything on single option only if they have choice to choose both.

[bakasabo]

I have doubts thought on education nowadays. On one hand its important to have one, to develop thinking, to have more knowledge and experience. On the other hand part of it can be obtained without graduating from university. It is said or believed that university diploma «open doors», it gives chances to start a career. But, it only open a door, which can be closed quick if a former student cant prove himself and show that he is worth hiring.

[Peanutswar]

Basically still considering with the degree most of the job recently now have a license and one of the requirement to have this is the degree and we know most of the related job into a daily basis such as infrastructure, system, health, any thing related into humans basic needs are must to have a license as a use for being a professinal, now it seems depends on the degree we know that we have a the rulling of the supply and demand the same wise with the job, if theres a lot of student into medical and tons already hired and does not need related into it they dont have a choice if they want to keep waiting and pursue or just find another job just to have a money to sustain their daily lives and activities and for sure most of the people do the second option with the hard of the life we have right now. So for me still it matters for those people who want to push the life they want and the course they enjoy with.

[slapper]

If university degrees were not valuable or useful, people would never get a degree, and would even remain uneducated their entire lives. You get a degree not to get a job or to be useful, but to learn in life and to use the knowledge you gain for the benefit of humanity. A university student acquires various important knowledge from the great lecturers of the university while he is in the university. A student acquires that knowledge and uses it for the welfare of humanity and gives that acquired knowledge to the next generation. Some will establish their own business, some will become entrepreneurs, some will become admins of various organizations, university teachers, etc. Again, after studying at the university, some will take on the task of building the country, some will provide leadership at the national and international levels, etc. However, many people also study at the university out of the responsibility of being a good citizen. In no case will I say that a degree earned from a university is worthless.

Suppose that degrees are to be learned and giving back, how come the system has made learning so hard to exclusionary, so prohibitively costly, so bound up in paperwork? There is no lack of "great lecturers" to humanity. It is lack of fair opportunity to exercise the freedom of choice. The very idea of someone building the nation post-degree is a noble one, but does it not assume that the institution are the only means can contribute to the nation?

As of the 21st century, YouTube self-educated autodidacts quantum mechanics, and fully DAO without any single MBA, Bitcoin miners securing a trillion-dollar network with no central university authority. These expose that universities are possessed of one model of development, not the model

I do believe that a degree does have a symbolic value, although there is a risk of inflating its sacredness. What is the effect when the duty to be a good citizen is hijacked by states and corporations propaganda? At this stage, are the degrees shaping free minds, or producing compliant employees?

Education is priceless, yes. The degree as a certificate (limited, costly, gatekept) however, should not be equated with education itself. In a world where information flows everywhere, whereby Bitcoin educates us that we need not be attached to centralized authority, perhaps the true sign of being a good citizen is never having a degree in the first place, and never having any kind of institution determine your value

[Abiky]

I have doubts thought on education nowadays. On one hand its important to have one, to develop thinking, to have more knowledge and experience. On the other hand part of it can be obtained without graduating from university. It is said or believed that university diploma «open doors», it gives chances to start a career. But, it only open a door, which can be closed quick if a former student cant prove himself and show that he is worth hiring.

I think you're talking about experience. And yes, there are many graduates who really don't know what they're doing in their workplace. It's not about having a degree, but proving yourself worthy of being in your chosen career. That's why many employers these days ask for more than just a college degree. You need experience, you need strong connections, and in some cases, you need to pursue certifications (like in the IT industry) to be able to qualify for a job.

Can you become successful without a college degree? Yes, it's possible. But it's not as easy as it sounds. Becoming an entrepreneur or your own boss takes a lot of time, effort, and consistency. You also need some initial investment to get up and running. If you don't have the resources, you'll simply fail. Hopefully, increasing employment requirements will force people to seek higher education.