Why bother going to uni? There are a lot of more entertaining YouTube tutorials than my professors.

Some amount of elementary education is compulsory in a lot of countries. Some have a strict 12 years system, such as what I had in my home country, some have a more flexible, such as in Germany. Here the duration of the elementary education varies. If someone decided to pursue the most academic route, it could take up to 13 years to complete it, rather than if someone decided to be a trained worker, it could take only 10 years. What matters is, there is always some form of a compulsory elementary education almost everywhere in the world, but today I am not talking about it. I'm talking about one step higher, which is the university.

In my home country, getting into a university is a big deal, especially favourite ones. We have discussed last time how expensive it could be to get into favourite unis, not the amount that they have to pay to the uni, but the cost during the process and preparation. (Almost) everyone wants to go to the best uni in the town or the country. Successfully accepted in one of them is one of someone's biggest achievement and proudest moment, and they should be. With the ratio of getting accepted reaches 1:50 or higher, the competition is indeed really tough.

However, I'm personally shocked when I learn about the situation in Germany, where I am now continuing my study. Most of the time there is even no competition at all! You could just submit your application and on the next day, you are officially a student. This is obviously not the case for every major. Some of them have really tough competition, such as medicine or architecture. However, apart from those minorities, getting into uni is one of the easiest tasks. Even for some subjects that people constantly relate Germany with, such as mechanical engineering, almost every single uni conducts no selection. Just prepare your documents, welcome!

There are a lot of factors playing into this situation. In Germany, a study program is viewed as an offer: "Here are the courses, we will offer them every year, it's up to you when you do them." Students plan their courses differently: some follow the recommended plan and finish quickly, most choose an individual plan which takes longer. Hardly anyone feels the need to finish "on time". This makes studying into the uni could be a "side-job". It does not even shame if you quit uni! Of course, this is also because of the certainty in the job market, which won't make you jobless if you don't have any university degree, which is exactly the situation in Indonesia.

However, with the growing number of modern companies that do not require a degree to apply for a job, is university even still relevant? Why do we need to spend a lot of money for a degree, when what matters the most is the skills?

Is A Degree Still A Must?

Short answer: it depends.

Here we are talking purely about the degree, not the knowledge or the skills we learn in uni. Having a degree is a pride for a lot of people, but apart from that? The reality is some old-fashioned companies are still looking into from which uni you are graduating from. These universities, who already have an excellent reputation among top companies, are the golden ticket. They assume if you graduated from one of these units, you have the same skills, work ethics, knowledge, etc as the other employees from the same uni.

However, we have seen in the last decades that even the biggest companies such as Microsoft, Apple, Tesla, (the list goes on forever) do not require a degree for you to apply. They list a certain skill they would want you to have, and if you have them, regardless if you have a degree or not, you could work from them. Personally I predict that this situation will become the custom in the upcoming years. Why?

First, we have to go back a couple of hundred years. Universities are built for the rich and gifted students. It is not enough if you are only gifted, because universities were like the pandora box of knowledge. There they keep the most important books and apparatus you need to succeed, and there is no way you could get them without getting into the uni.

However, this is not the current situation. With any skill or knowledge is just one-google-enter away, there is no reason specifically going to uni just to learn them. Most of the time youtube tutorials are even more entertaining and effective to learn with. This was shown by the fact that most of these tutorials' viewer are actually university students who don't get anything or need to fill the gaps from the regular lectures.

So, is a degree still a must? In a short future, no.

However, how about uni itself? It is more complicated.

You Are Less Clueless.

One of the benefits of going to uni is actually the syllabus. The fact that you are given a list of skills that you need to require by the end of the semester will help you so much, and this is actually what could differentiate between going to the uni or not. If you decided to learn everything by yourself using the internet and any other materials, which is totally possible, one of the challenges is to figure out what you need to learn and in which order. 

Let's take the example of learning physics. Sure you could list the topics such as mechanics, electricity and magnetism, optics, and so on. However, that's not everything. There is still a bunch of mathematics that you need to learn in parallel to the actual physics. Add programming and application to it, and sometimes it could be a mess when there is something or someone that could guide you.

Someone, yes someone. This is another benefit, which is connection. In uni, there are a lot of valuable connections you could make to help you pursue your desired career in the future. (Why do I sound like promoting a uni or something lol). People who have a lot of experience could make you less clueless than studying by yourself. There are also your classmates and seniors that will guide you along your way. I sometimes personally even underestimate the value of the people in the uni. If we are only considering the teaching aspect, sure youtube videos are a lot of times most useful. However, the insights that they could give is priceless. "Backdoor" access to a lot of companies are also often underestimated. Sure this differs from each uni, but I'm sure they will help you a lot.

The last thing, the commitment and dedication to learn. Going to uni is a commitment. You pay some amount of money (sometimes you even need to loan and pay it back through the rest of your life), and with that, you have pressure to learn well. This is already a big enough motivation for some people why they need to succeed because they have so much to lose if they fail. Time is also a factor. You dedicate your 3-4 years of your life becoming a student "again" when you could just go out making money. For some people, this is a source of motivation that could not be gained somewhere else.

Uni is Not For Everyone.

I have to say the university is not for everyone. However, don't go to the uni because of the pressure from everyone else around you. Don't go just because all of your friends go to. Go because you find joy in learning and figuring out new things. Go because you love working and learning at the same time. Go because you could make a lot of valuable connections that could be useful for your future.

Enjoy every laugh and tears. The most important thing about going into the uni is not the knowledge we earn, as I said before, the knowledge could be gained elsewhere. What matters is the experience, commitment, and all the ups and downs that could make yourself a better person.

So, yes. University is still relevant, as long as you know how you could use it for your better future.

Title image credit: The Guardian