tygerland.net

This was originally written for Mr. Zhisou’s new business blog: -

I was just listening to an episode of the Slashdot Review tech podcast, and one of the stories was about a dean of admissions at MIT who had lied about her three degrees. She had none. The irony is of course delicious, but the story does bring up that age-old question: is a degree, for its own sake, of any real use to employers?

Obviously I don’t mean professional degrees such as medicine and law, where the student is intending to pursue a career in the field, I refer instead to generic degrees. Take myself; I have an English degree (minor American History), yet I work in industry. The fact that I can ‘appreciate’ poetic structure has yet to help me in a finance meeting.

Indeed, our protagonist Marilee Jones had been at MIT for 28-years, and had been promoted to the post of dean, so her lack of qualifications clearly didn’t affect her performance.

In the commercial arena it matters little who has a degree or not. Many people I come across have degrees in economics and business itself – but I wouldn’t say it has made them better performers in the work place. Generally those who have risen to top without a degree have overcome significant barriers and their performance levels reflect this.

The report on the podcast discussed what a degree offers an employer. It suggested that graduates are comfortable to sit for long periods while maintaining concentration. Well, that’s great for the office, but it doesn’t give any indication of application, creativity, or raw talent.

I was a lazy student. I got though on talent and an ability to perform under pressure. I could apply texts to their historical context because I knew my history and my politics. I could draft good essays in exams because I find writing easy and I have a critical eye. But these are skills that I had prior to university. I almost never revised and I missed loads of lectures. My coursework essays were invariably late, almost always hand-written, and I hated most of my tutors. I was/am a terrible student.

Is it an issue of conformity? Are graduates seen as well-oiled drones, perfectly suited to badgering away in meaningless corporate roles? Also, as the podcast went on to discuss, are grads also so debt-ridden and desperate for a regular income, that they’ll never be any trouble? Is this what university is all about, to create an army of willing tie-wearers?

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