Having a Ph.D. may make me both qualified and unqualified to call for considering whether higher education is the best choice for you. When I talk with people in their early 20s, I try to bring them to make a cautious judgment because I see how they may fall prey to myths related to university education.
Testing Academia as a Workplace and Dream
I could not have pursued an academic career for several years if I had not been in BA and MA programs (fortunately I did not pay for). However, not everyone wants to become a scientist or academic teaching staff. After having got to know how academia works from the inside, I also did not want to stay there. Still, I have to acknowledge the advantage of insight into what I do not want in shaping my further choices. So finding out whether an academic career is something you would enjoy, in case there is any spark of interest, is definitely worth your investment. I could try it out at no cost. If I had to pay for this form of self-inquiry, I would give myself more time for reading in different disciplines and figuring out what my research question really is. I did not do it myself because my erring had no deeper consequences.
Acquiring and Showing Expertise
Because of my studies, I have read books I otherwise would not have picked up myself. They were enriching and shaped my thinking. The reading before and after my academic years, however, has also shaped my thinking. The advantage of being at a university was to be forced to do a lot of reading in a short period of time. This was a training for me, which makes me not shy away from thicker, complex books.
Ask yourself whether you really want to improve your skills at a university with feedback from faculty. Now that we have so many media channels with voices of scientists and thinkers, self-education is even easier. You may argue that contact with teaching staff is the main value-added of studies. There were some moments when I learned from feedback, but they were relatively few. As an academic teacher, I wanted to implement more feedback, but my students did not appreciate it.
You should also consider that the knowledge transferred by the teachers reflects their own perspectives and limitations. A lot of knowledge and intellectual heritage has not made it to universities yet. If you are interested in a particular topic, you might need to search for resources across universities, NGOs, and academic journals to build up your expertise. I have done internships in several NGOs to come to the conclusion that this is not my professional path. I have learned a lot from these experiences. Adding some books and articles to this would have been enough to learn about this domain.
Most people go to university because they want a paper showing that they are competent. For an academic career, there is no other option but to do all the degrees. In contrast, there are many careers where you can show your competence in practice. I talked with one person who wanted to advance in school management, thinking that she needs a degree for this, and with another person who wanted to pursue a career in NGO sector, thinking that he needs to pay for a master’s degree. I am pretty sure that they could achieve their dreams without these degrees. If you want to prove your writing skills, start publishing. If you want to present your expertise, start a blog, conduct interviews, publish reviews of books in your area of study, give lectures, or organize conferences. This is going to be much cheaper than a degree and will make you stand out as a candidate because of the self-initiative attitude.
Self-Esteem and Courage
In hindsight, academia has given me courage and confirmation of my skills, for which I am grateful. Positive feedback I received during my studies helped me to believe in my capacities. It was a rite of passage on the way of being more independent and not needing a confirmation from outside. I am not sure I would have thought of other ways to build my self-confidence when I was young(er). Now, I can think of other ways, such as volunteering in an NGO or any form of political activism.
Consider also that the fame that universities have built for centuries may not match the actual practice. They operate like enterprises, which may derail their mission of the pursuit of knowledge and education. For example, Jeffrey Epstein—convicted sex offender who operated a sex ring abusing girls as young as 14 years old—had bought visitor status for himself at the Harvard University despite not having academic credentials. He was a visiting fellow between 2005-2007. First, he was hosted by the Psychology Department. Second, he was welcomed by mathematician Martin Nowak after having served a prison sentence for the solicitation of prostitution from a minor in 2006. Harvard reported that Epstein paid $9.1 million in various forms of research funding. Do you really need to be part of institutions of such a dubious morality to build up your self-esteem?
Underfunding higher education undermines the quality. For example, City University of New York fired 2,800 staff in the wake of the COVID-19 lockdown. Many universities have reported stories of adjunct faculty receiving food stamps. What kind of quality job performance can you expect from someone who is struggling to make ends meet?
Networking and meeting your people
I spoke with a man who has changed his interests after two years of studying engineering. Meeting creative people on the campus where he pursued a degree has helped him in developing a passion for humanities. He took literature classes, as a result. This can be seen as an advantage of attending university but there are so many other ways of connecting to others. I have met many interesting people thanks to flat sharing, for example. Even being a building cleaner made me make interesting encounters. One can be more intentional about meeting people and broaden horizons by organizing meetups and contacting people who have similar interests.
Universities thrive on a culture making people think that they cannot simply pursue their desire to be part of something and to deepen ties with other people without paying heavy money to an institution. Imagine that instead of paying tuition, you gathered a group of four people interested in similar topics. You could pool resources and buy books and meet regularly to discuss them. In the end, you would deepen your friendship and develop common understanding and expertise, which may be a base for common ventures.
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I was counting my blessings whenever I was talking with young US Americans who needed to pay off their student loan debt. Some people told me that they were not aware of the consequences of the student debt when they were signing loan papers. A twenty-seven year old woman realized later that she was paying only interests and not the loan itself for several years. They experienced stress and perceived less options for themselves because they were owing money. Gap year may be the best of investments by either saving you tuition costs altogether or spending money in a wise way.
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Related:
Student Loans: Failing the Student and Society
The entire lending system may vanish into illegitimacy.
Exposing Academic Fraud in Higher Education
Are frauds threatening the value of your degree?
Higher Education’s Next Challenge: Mid-Career Workers
Learning is a lifelong endeavor that must be delivered across the whole of the adult population.
Is Higher Education Turning Into a Form of Economic Exploitation of Students?
Why auto-didacticism may be the new future of higher education.
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