Are University Program Courses Wasting Your Time?

Some students see the UP as a waste of their time and money. 

In reality, though, nothing could be further from the truth. 

In fact, the University Program may be the most important part of your university education.

Some students think that the goal of college is simply to get a piece of paper (a diploma) that is a ticket into the upper middle class. However, college is not really about that piece of paper at all.  It is about an education. Companies do not hire people just because they have a piece of paper.  They know that the piece of paper, all by itself, is worthless.  What they want is to hire people who have been educated. 

An educated person has much more than simple job-training. She also has a knowledge of history, an understanding of the sciences, an appreciation for literature and the arts, an understanding of human behavior, an awareness of other cultures, and the insights into the human condition that come from studying philosophy, religion, and the other humanities.  These are essential components of an education; in fact, they make you an educated person as opposed to merely a well-trained one. 

Why do companies want people who have the kind of complete college education that one gets from the University Program? Because a complete college education develops something that is directly related to long-term success in ANY career. That something is intellectual flexibility. 

Intellectual flexibility is the ability to reason clearly, carefully, and creatively about a wide variety of topics, and to make good decisions in a wide variety of situations. It is the ability to think about new things, to think about old things in new ways, to cope with unfamiliar ideas and situations, to question conventional wisdom, and to apply insights and ideas from one field to problems in another.  A person who has intellectual flexibility has developed sound reasoning methods and problem-solving strategies that work in all sorts of contexts, including new and unfamiliar ones.  She has learned to think critically and creatively for herself rather than putting blind faith in conventional wisdom. 

Intellectual flexibility is one of the most important qualities in our quickly-changing world.  In the business world, for example, the current catch-phrase is "thinking outside the box."  Business persons need to solve new problems and seize new opportunities, to develop new solutions to old problems, and to question old approaches that no longer work in the changing marketplace. 

The need for intellectual flexibility is not limited to business, of course--everyone needs it if they are to be successful in the long run in a changing world.  This is because no matter how much things change, a person with intellectual flexibility will always be able to adapt, innovate, and cope.  A person without intellectual flexibility is helpless when things change.  These days, it is quite common for people to switch careers.  That means that all those "useful," "relevant" career-oriented courses you are taking now might turn out to be useless ten years from now when you decide to change careers (or if the next downturn in the economy costs you your job, or when all the technology you learned turns obsolete).   When things change--and they WILL change--you cannot afford to be without the ability to learn new things, think in new ways, and adapt to new environments. You cannot afford to be without intellectual flexibility. 

Intellectual flexibility is not a quality that you can learn from studying just one thing.  It must be developed through a serious study of a wide variety of different subjects.  No single discipline, no one department (and certainly no high-priced weekend seminar!), can teach intellectual flexibility.  Just as you get physical flexibility by stretching the body, you get intellectual flexibility by stretching the mind.  Just as you strengthen the body by doing a variety of different physical exercises, you strengthen the mind by studying a variety of different things. 

You may forget the details of the Shakespeare play, or the difference between phronesis and sophia, or the names of Henry VIII's wives, or the difference between meiosis and mitosis.  But the intellectual flexibility that you get from studying these things will be yours forever.  And that may be the single most important thing that you get from a college education.  (And, along the way, you might also gain some wisdom, some skills, and a deeper understanding of the world and your place within it.)