These days, there is so much debate on the internet that borders on university funding and why university education is no longer for every Tom, Dick, and Harry. Well-meaning individuals, who subscribe to this philosophy of increasing public university tuition fees, have maintained that those who would be unable to afford it would find, or be pushed to look for, alternatives in vocational skills or anything else, asides school. They assert that these vocational skills are even far more beneficial than university degrees in some ways because of the sheer rise in unemployment. They also believe that it is the panacea for the perennial ASUU strike. This popular belief, that without university education, an individual who is armed with the requisite skills would still survive in the labour market, is held by many people as true, and I cannot agree more. However, university education is far beyond the acquisition of degrees and skills.
University education is not just about the certificates. It also includes development of the mind, character and intellect. Earlier this week, I was discussing with a university friend who confessed to me that the early morning classes that she attended, tyrannous deadlines that she met, different personalities in the coursemates that she has, sociolinguistics courses and many other courses that she took at the University of Ibadan, have helped her to build resilience in the fashion brand she is building, as well as insights into her customers’ needs as well as improvement in customer relations.
An individual will definitely do better as a university graduate when he or she goes into fashion, baking, modelling, photography and you name it, because he or she has become more aware of his or her environment and the needs or wants of the people he or she is dealing with. With university education, they are more likely to succeed in their vocation and will know how to develop their business better. With multiple failures in school, they will have been more prepared to deal with failures in real life situations and in their businesses. I hold this to be true and valid when the individual looks beyond university degrees and certificates while he or she is learning in school.
While it is true that there are some who had no university education and became successful in the trade; however, you will find out that some of them go back into the university to obtain some education in spite of the already achieved success. The truth that I think many of us know remains that it is not just and only about the degrees that some of us go to school to get and one’s university education is never a waste of time even when one does not practice what one read in school. As the University of Ibadan has always maintained, university education is geared towards finding the student worthy in character first before knowledge and learning.
What one studied in school does not necessarily have to translate to what one will eventually do in life or be successful at in the long run. I also believe that university education exposes one to what one would eventually like to do in life. At their formative years, a child in their early teens may not completely know what career they want to do until they get into a university or about to graduate, or even shortly after graduation.
Therefore, we should not establish our reason for an increase in tuition fee on the possibility that a graduate, who read law or medicine in school, ditches what she studied to go into filmmaking, modelling, or say fashion designing. I would believe that some people still desire university education because of the beauty in it. One does not have to practice what one studied in school. The education, and this case, the formal education he or she has acquired in the university has some effect, a positive one at that, on his or her approach to societal issues and even in the way he or she handles things.
Furthermore, any discussion about increasing university tuition fees must not be driven by an ill-advised remark that university education is primarily about acquisition of degrees or certificates. It is not. Far beyond university degrees and certificates, university education serves as a training ground for character and intellectual development. A soldier that sweats profusely during battle will bleed less in battle. This is also true about the students at higher institutions of learning.
Lastly, the discussion of increased tuition fee must also take into consideration some students from humble background whose means of getting out of low social class or position hinges on getting a university degree and by extension, university education. University education, to many of these people, is a means to an end; a huge life changer for them, and after being equipped with the necessary values and norms of formal education at the universities, they can then contribute meaningfully to the development of the country.
Francis Ikuerowo,
University of Ibadan,
Ibadan, Oyo state
