WHAT IS THE TRUE PURPOSE OF UNIVERSITY EDUCATION?

A quiet unremarkable day in June was just another day for a group of friends of mine to meet over a bottle of drink at the beach. We usually discuss issues ranging from politics, religion to education. On this particular day, the discussion centred on university education. The main point of contention was about the decision of the council of our alma matter to convert the two all-male halls on campus to mixed halls to accommodate both male and female students. I would get to the details of the discussion later but allow me to digress for a moment and ask questions concerning the purpose of a university education.

As far as I’m concerned, the role of a university in any society is to promote the contest of ideas and spark intellectual curiosity among both the young and the old. Aside the traditional roles of teaching and research, universities should also serve a purpose as the sieve of eccentric and dangerous thoughts among young students.

However, I have had cause to worry about the quality of thoughts among young university students in recent times. A couple of weeks ago, I was scandalized by a video of two young party leaders involved in a physical altercation at the studio of a radio station during a mid-afternoon political show. I was profoundly saddened because the two young men involved were my contemporaries at university. I am still at a loss concerning that particular incident.

How could a mere political debate degenerate into such a scuffle? There is a world of difference between having an argument with another person and having a quarrel with a person. For anybody with a college degree, this should be a fairly easy concept to grasp.

My friend George once bemoaned the tendency of our alma matter, the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, to produce plausible ‘idiots’. It is becoming increasingly unbearable for me to read or listen to arguments from some of my college mates. I don’t in any way suggests such colleagues are dumb. On the contrary, some of the people I’m talking about are some of the most brilliant I ever met on campus. Most had a first in a wide range of courses in the sciences, engineering and arts.

What therefore could account for their dreadful views on national issues and thuggery approach to politics? Clearly I don’t put it down to lack of intelligence. But what would motivate a young brilliant graduate to resort to insults or body shaming when arguing, for instance, with a feminist on the role of women in a modern society? Then there is the new obsession with LGBTs rights. I am in favour of abortion and the protection of the rights of gays and trans genders; would that justify anybody disagreeing with my position calling me a gay or a twerp?

 I believe universities at the core of their missions should remain as bastions of free thinking and the window through with a society draws inspiration for the development of its civilization. What then happens when the students our universities are churning out are just a bunch of narrow-minded educated folks who don’t believe in the contest of ideas? If people who speak freely of their political, social, religious and economic views are subjected to fascistic behavior by university graduates, then where lies the intellectual compass of the society?

For a very long time, we have drifted from the core values of university education and reduced it to a place where one goes in order to make more money from one’s career. University education is certainly more than that. Universities should continue to remain as the breeding grounds for cultivating original and boundary-pushing ideas. Â

I still believe in the ability of universities to churn out well-grounded graduates with the ability to appreciate the nuances of current global issues. Certainly I won’t pretend to be an expert on higher education teaching and curriculum development. I believe we have enough capable hands in our universities to handle that.

I also hope my interaction with a young Classics major student recently is rather the exception than the norm. A final year student undertaking internship with a media outlet in Kumasi. She had not written an essay of more than five pages in her entire course work and wasn’t sure her department even required her to write a long essay as part of her degree programme.

It is time we start thinking about the relationship between the purpose of university education and improvements of society.