The Great Debate — To Attend University…Or Not

We are living through a period where traditional education is being demonised. When I say traditional education, I’m referring to our universities. Over the last couple of years, I’ve heard a lot of rhetoric online and in person against the idea of going to university to pursue a degree.

This demonisation of our current educational institutions in the West is justified, right?

For one, the cost of these degrees has skyrocketed, and the return on investment for getting a degree is becoming less appealing, especially considering the current landscape that the internet and social media provide. At the age of 17 or 18, we expect kids to make one of the most significant financial decisions of their lives and enrol in a degree, when these same kids have no accurate idea of who they are, let alone what they want to do for a career. This is a scam, especially considering that the modern-day career path looks different from someone in the 1970s who studied a field and would expect to be in that role for the rest of their lives. For example, someone studying accounting 50 years ago could expect to be an accountant for the rest of their lives. Nowadays, technology and lifestyle are moving way too fast for one to predict where they will be in the next ten years. Look at how much social media has changed the game; it has only really been around in the mainstream for 15 years. Now that AI has come to the party, our ability to forecast what’s on the horizon rapidly diminishes. The truth is the job you’re in today will likely not be your one in 10 years from now. And so, many kids are now questioning whether it’s worth getting a degree in a field and putting themselves through tens of thousands of dollars of debt when that field could be completely disrupted in the next couple of decades. Statistics already show that 75% of people who get a degree end up in an area unrelated to the one they studied. Suppose the cost of these degrees is rising faster than their return on investment. In that case, technology is making it difficult to predict what jobs there will be in the next decade, and most people still need to find employment in the fields they studied, so what is the point of even getting a degree?

This leads me to my second point: Now that almost everyone has internet and social media access, it’s never been easier for someone to start a business online and make money without ever having to leave their beds. Why would a young person just about to graduate from high school want to go to university to study for a degree, only to walk out with tens of thousands of dollars of debt when they can start a business online? A plethora of online information and resources teach you how to start an online business. So, why get a business degree when you can learn how to do business online and create your own? Our problem is this — we are still using the same educational system we used in the 1950s, designed to breed good factory workers. Meanwhile, an entire generation of young people has grown up in a completely different world, and we expect to get their education the same way a young person did 50 years ago — This system is wildly outdated. It is not fit for the modern-day young person, not to mention that it is hugely unattractive to young people compared to the opportunity the internet promises.

Thirdly, there’s a huge perception across the West that many of our universities are turning into breeding grounds for woke ideology. We have woke professors teaching woke things to young, impressionable minds. So, it’s no wonder why many people are now hesitant to encourage their kids to go to one of these institutions where they risk being “indoctrinated” by woke ideology. Not to mention that there have been several woke degrees like “feminist studies or gender studies” that have been designed to provide absolutely no utility and only further scam young, impressionable kids into pulling out more money from the bank to fund their tuition. Wokeism at universities has had a substantial negative impact on the credibility of these institutions, and it’s a shame.

I’ve outlined people’s four most significant reservations regarding our educational institutions and the path to getting a degree. I completely agree with all these points. I think all the criticism is warranted, that our system is broken, and that if we don’t do something radical to change things up, then I won’t be surprised if, in 10–20 years, most of the universities we know of today won’t be around.

On the contrary, I think you ought to consider getting a university degree, particularly if you’re a young male, and here’s why –

We need to change the way we look at university education. Let’s throw out the idea that pursuing a degree is all for landing that high-paying job. But let’s throw the notion of landing a high-paying job out the window. You should pursue a degree because the experience of attending university is an opportunity to network, build character, make friends and position yourself to one day become your own boss. Many of us should stop getting a degree to get a job and more to build upon our knowledge of the world, discover our interests and passions, and figure out how to create our own employment rather than rely on a corporation to do the bidding for us. There are many ways to pursue and monetise your interests using the internet to create online products and services. And you don’t need a degree to do that, and to some extent, you’re right. But what if someone is interested in nutrition and wants to start a business around that? In that case, having a relevant degree is a great way to stimulate your intellectual interests while learning the ropes of that field in a rigorous environment. This builds a reputation of deep knowledge and credibility in your expertise and a positive perception of the one selling their service to the market. You can learn nutrition online, but the truth is, having those credentials besides your name will go a lot further when it comes to sourcing clients — perception matters. Not everyone can crush it in crypto investing, dropshipping, or YouTube influencing. But people can crush it in a wide range of other fields of their interest.

Another factor to consider is that women are entering the workforce in droves and becoming more and more educated. In fact, women now take up 75% of university enrollment placements in the United States. While men still dominate the STEM fields, women dominate every other field in terms of spots at university. Historically speaking, people who earn a bachelor’s degree make $1 million more than those who just graduated from high school, and those who earn a master’s degree make $2 million more than those who just graduated from high school. Now, women are taking up most university spots at the moment. In that case, we have a massive cohort of young women with much higher earning potential than many men who choose not to attend university. You might argue that more men are getting into trades and that trades pay just as well as an office job that requires a degree. There is most definitely a lot of truth to that. I know this from my own experience. I have a large group of friends, and they are in two different camps — you have the tradies, and you have the university grads with office jobs. Some of the highest earners of my friends did not get a degree and are running their businesses in the trades. However, here’s something to consider — Hypergamy. I know many people will roll their eyes at the word, but it does play a role in all of this, and the stats show it.

I have seen countless interviews of YouTubers in the dating space who ask modern-day educated women with degrees whether or not they will date men with no degree, and a large portion of them say no. In fact, the more educated a woman becomes, the more educated of a mate she seeks. I attribute this to hypergamy — whereby women date across and up in socioeconomic status. In other words, women seek male mates who are equal to or higher than them in things like income potential, ambition and intelligence. Dr. David Buss (1995) found that the two most attractive traits women look for in men are intelligence and ambition. Other studies have found that the more educated a man becomes, the higher his likelihood of career and financial success and success in securing a partner and having a successful long-term relationship with that partner. I am speaking in generalities, of course; however, I have no choice but to speak in generalities in this circumstance.

After considering the changes in society, with women outpacing men in education and income potential, some of these disparities are contributing to the poor outcomes in the current dating pool. Therefore, I encourage young people to reframe their thoughts about attending university. Getting a degree isn’t just about “paying for a $50k piece of paper”, as I used to say. Earning a degree improves your income potential and acts as a symbol of status. As Jordan Peterson once said when he was asked what the utility of a university degree was, attending such a prestigious institution as a university provides one with status in society. When people of any kind, such as employers or potential dating prospects, know you attend university, you are seen through a different lens. I’m not suggesting you go to university to get a degree just for social credit — no. That would be stupid. However, pursuing a university degree isn’t only about obtaining a piece of paper. It’s much more than that; it will affect the types of people you meet and the opportunities that will get presented before you.

This leads me to my last point. Part of the better social credit you will receive from attending a university is related to the fact that pursuing a degree requires discipline, focus, ambition, intelligence, intellect and diligence. And, if you don't possess any of the qualities I just listed, university is a great place to learn these things. It’s not the only way to learn these things, but it is a tried and true way, which is part of why you’re perceived as having a higher status in the eyes of society when you’re attending a university or already have a degree. Also, you will be surrounded by many other intelligent and ambitious people you can network with and make friends with. You never know where one of those relationships could take you in your career. You might argue, and you say, that some of the wealthiest, most successful people in the world dropped out of university, like Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs, and sure, they did. But these people are anomalies who were way ahead of the curb and found that their time would be better spent building the large empires they all created. You’d be forgetting all the successful people who got their degrees and made life-changing connections while attending university. Most people who graduated from university and are successful in their careers don’t get spoken about because we tend to focus on the select extraordinary few who did extraordinary things simply because they were extraordinary individuals. Most people are not extraordinary, and that’s okay. And look, I know that the notion of social status sounds superficial, but we can’t deny that it matters. It matters in the workforce, it matters when networking, it matters when dating, it matters in your relationships, and it matters to your sense of self.

Now, I acknowledge that there is so much wrong with our current way of doing things in education. Our system is broken from kindergarten to university because it’s wildly outdated. We currently send kids to school to participate in the same system as what kids participated in 50 years ago when life was much different. Therefore, this old paradigm needs to be updated and changed to accommodate better to the modern-day kid. In addition, our educational institutions in the West have moved away from being hubs for discussion, debate and the exchange of ideas and towards a more industrialised, corporate model that neglects all the good things that once were about university. However, despite these flaws, we need to reconsider how we look at education and should try not to throw the baby out with the bath water. Universities are still reputable institutions in the eyes of our modern society, and individuals and organisations still look at university education through a highly positive lens. Suppose not for the social credit and the prestige attending one of these institutions provides. In that case, there’s still a lot of utility in attending one of these places to learn essential skills and knowledge in a rigorous environment where you will gain discipline, a network and potentially, and potentially, a passion for a field that you could one day be of contribute towards.

I will conclude by saying, however — if you’re not interested in a university course, don’t go. Don’t do a degree just for the sake of it. Don’t do a degree to get a job, either. Pick a course that interests you, a field that you believe will provide you with some passion and self-growth, an area that will push you and stretch your intellect and discipline in ways that mould you into a better person for when you do go out into the real world. These are the pros and cons of attending university right now, and we need to consider both sides of the aisle when considering whether to attend a university. It’s a massive investment of time, energy and money; therefore, you want to make it worthwhile. While there are many negatives to our current way of doing things, we need to hold tight and hope for some radical positive change, which I believe we will see in the upcoming decade. I think we shouldn’t be too quick to throw the baby out with the bath water and know that our educational institutions in the West are things to marvel at, and while some of them are moving in the wrong direction currently, I believe the changes that occur in our world in the upcoming decade will course correct for many of these negatives we see today.