What is the purpose of a university education?
Sun Kwok says it isn’t just about enhancing one’s career prospects. At its best, a university should broaden students’ minds and horizons, allowing then to discern connections and analyse problems successfully, thus empowering them to change the world
In the past, we emphasised computational techniques and demanded that our students calculate answers quickly and accurately. But such technical tasks are being taken over by machines
The purpose of institutions of higher learning has evolved over the past millennium: from praising the glory of God, to self-fulfilment, to the search for truth. The 20th century saw the gradual introduction of agriculture and mining schools, teacher colleges and business schools to serve practical needs. In the 21st century, even the world’s leading universities use a mixed model. In addition to arts and science, most include professional disciplines such as architecture, business, engineering, law and medicine, where students train for professional qualifications to practise. I should note, however, that most professional programmes in North America require a four-year general degree as an entrance requirement.
Our world is changing quickly. We cannot expect the material we learn in a professional discipline to remain relevant for the rest of our career. Just look at the hi-tech industry: most of the technical skills needed today were not part of engineering school curriculums a few years ago. Technology and artificial intelligence are also rapidly making certain routine human enterprises obsolete. A successful university education must therefore provide students with fundamental skills and help them learn on their own and adapt to evolving circumstances.
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What are these fundamentals? Language skills, including comprehension, expression and communication, will always be needed. Quantitative skills, such as the ability to analyse a problem, see hidden patterns, identify relevant variables and formulate solutions, are crucial to many jobs in society.
In the past, we emphasised computational techniques and demanded that our students calculate answers quickly and accurately. But such technical tasks are being taken over by machines.
I took four years of mathematics in university. But after I obtained my PhD, I never performed an integration, inverted a matrix, found the root of a non-linear equation or derived solutions to a differential equation by hand. If I need to perform these tasks, I use a calculator or computer. Possessing such technical abilities is far less important than my ability to know what kind of mathematics to apply and how to formulate equations to solve a real-life problem.
