The model of the university used to be for the sake of an education. The general consensus of students attending used to be that they were going to school to better themselves, and to get a general education about the world, and then find themselves in it. Now, students go to school just to get a job, and there is a major problem with this.
The motivation for higher education has evolved to the point where the university model has become a business. When a school becomes a business for profit, the institution then changes in an attempt to retain and increase these profits. As a result, the university becomes less about the bettering and empowerment of it's students, and loses the drive to learn and explore that is so important for well rounded, educated beings. Now, this does not necessarily mean that all hope is lost in receiving a well rounded education for the sake of an education; there are many great schools that offer many well rounded and enriching programs. However, in all honesty, the modern university model is a machine to get you in the door, take your money, keep you as long as possible with a pre-determined set of standards to be met, and then spit you out with job skills that may or may not be sufficient enough in order to make room for the next "customer"- because at the end of the day, the university is still a business. When an institution is a business model, they will do their best to insure that they stay in business. So, this may mean trying to retain and recruit more students, but still not hiring more staff, or even lowering academic standards in order to pass more students and make themselves look more desirable as an institution.
Unfortunately, this does impact and influence students. When the primary goal of an education becomes for the sake of employment rather than for the sake of an education, a very crucial element to the university is lost. The original universities of the West were not for job training, but for a better view of the world, in order to broaden the mind and have a better appreciation for life and how it has come to be. Now, we pick a major right out of high school, take courses strictly for that major, and maybe take an english or art history class to fulfill a credit. While there is nothing wrong with wanting to get a specific set of skills out of your education, shouldn't higher education be an exploration of all that we could be learning and experiencing, rather than just getting in, getting job training, and getting out? There is a whole aspect of just experiencing life and having an appreciation for the world around us that is left out in this model.
As outlined by Karin Fischer in The Employment Mismatch, employers have "dinged bachelor's-degree holders for lacking basic workplace proficiencies, like adaptability, communication skills, and the ability to solve complex problems". It goes on to quote David E. Boyes, who owns a technology consulting company: "'It's not a matter of technical skill,' he says, 'but of knowing how to think'". This is because specific job training just doesn't cut it; Students must learn how to be functioning members of society, as well as how to be one of those specific members. That is why general education courses are so vital to not only a well rounded education, but a well rounded human being.
Just because this tends to be the trend of modern education, does not mean that we have to get swept away by it. Go to these higher education institutions, get the most for your money. Learn to read and talk and write and think. Go to university to shape yourself as a human being, not to just get a job to make money. Get an education for the sake of an education; The job that can result is just one benefit of many.
