Is there any point in higher education? The meaning of higher education Is it possible to realize oneself in life without higher education?

1. I doubt that the best knowledge for me is contained in the program developed by uncles and parents of retirement age from the Ministry of Education. What did you want from people who still remember how they were taught that “Genetics is the corrupt girl of imperialism,” and they associate the word “iPhone” with something indecent.

Why do I need the “best education in the world” for which they pay the least amount of money? Everything would be different, but, unfortunately, the “stupid Yankees” and “snickering Europeans” do not know about the “best in the world,” so we will have to receive our domestic wages.
In order to get approximately a hryvnia salary in dollars, divide by 8, and in rubles multiply by 4.


Considering the loss of my poker income and the minimal cost of higher education, it will cost me at least $250,000 in cash over 5 years. It’s better that I buy myself a brand new Bentley instead and go get a job as a watermelon saleswoman... Just laugh at the owner’s amazement and get a portion of fame. And even better, if you invest these funds, even at 10% per annum, then you can open some kind of commercial enterprise yourself and use hired labor. What else can you buy with this money?
New Bentley Continental GT 2012...

...Or a taxi fleet of 42 new VAZ 2107 at retail price

New house on the seashore in Sevastopol with an area of ​​250 sq. m. m. in an elite area...


...Or 50 - 500 houses in depressed areas of the Donetsk region

If education is considered as an investment, then it is an investment of a decent amount for a very long period of time with a completely unpredictable and incomprehensible result for me. I wonder if any of the proponents of higher education as an investment will even answer for themselves what their ROI is or at least the return on investment as a percentage per annum. I prefer to invest here and now from 10% per year and above on transparent terms.
Below is a graph of what will happen in my case if, instead of higher education, I invest the saved money at 10% per annum. Those. at the end of the five-year period I will have $305,000. If I continue to invest it at 10% per annum, then I will receive more than $30,000 per year in passive income, and not the salary of a young specialist.

I don’t see the point in listening to lectures and writing them down in a notebook, because I know what the Internet is and I know how to use search engines. If one notebook page is covered tightly in small font, then this amount of information will be equal to approximately 1 KB of text in a notepad (1000 characters). Download 100 KB (a large general notebook) of text and realize how meager it is and what is the point of writing it yourself.
It's a pity that Uncle Albert didn't live in the Internet era...


Knowledge should be rewarded with money, and not “play money” in the form of grades. I played the game “Get a higher grade than your neighbor” for ten years at school. At the end of this game, all my “A” points turned out to be invaluable and useless in the new realities. I don’t see the point in wasting time on meaningless competitions with peers for the second time.

I don’t see any practical results in the lion’s share of the subjects offered for study. If I have a goal, I know what knowledge I lack. The less I am distracted by extraneous information, the faster I achieve my goal.


I am not interested in listening to the conclusions of ill-prepared fellow students for minutes that turn into hours, weeks, months and years. What is the practical benefit for me from listening to assess the level of knowledge of Ivan Ivanov’s “speaking at the blackboard” at a seminar, practical lesson, exam?! What else can an adult girl do when someone is mooing near the board?!


What 9 out of 10 modern people have cannot be sold at a high price.
Banal competition


All my relatives and friends advised me to get a higher education. But if they are poor, is it really worth listening to their opinion on how to become rich?
People close to me often wish me well, but they are mistaken even more often

In the end, I was unable to logically and rationally answer my husband’s question: “What do you need it for? Better learn to cook borscht well.” However, after the presentation of my investment plan, he agreed that even good borscht cannot cost $250,000 - $300,000 in 5 years and is now forced to eat in canteens, cafes and restaurants.


All of the above are the arguments on which my personal choice was based. Everyone must choose their own path depending on their goals and life values. I include comments because I see a topic for discussion here.

And outside the window is the month of May. That very month when fragile young minds suddenly unexpectedly find my site, which has been a little neglected lately. Some of them even write letters. Instruct, they say, Teacher, on the true path, open the path to the Light and all that. Let's say this:

Was a mythist, transferred (did not finish his studies), now, so to speak, at a crossroads. Either study, or work and immediately try to do something. As a glorious mythist, I periodically read the chronicle of myth, but only today I came across it. About choosing a university - after studying - I completely agree with you. But I think you've missed the point. Do you think this whole idea of ​​higher education is justified? If you have a brain, hands and the Internet, you can learn everything (or almost everything), avoiding a heap of unnecessary nonsense and a lot of wasted time.

By the way, regarding the note mentioned in the text of the letter. Recently I was walking with a charming mademoiselle through the places of her childhood. In particular, we passed by the kindergarten, where she, at a tender preschool age, was lucky enough to be shipped out on weekdays. This is a normal, typical Soviet kindergarten. A sign now proudly displays on the fence enclosing it: “Non-state educational institution. An institute of some kind of entrepreneurship with some kind of management. State diploma. Blah blah blah. Deferment from the army". Hell, in our strange times, I’m even ready to believe that this educational institution did not particularly change its staff during the process of repurposing. But that's not what I'm talking about.

So here's the question. Is it even necessary, is it higher education? After all, there is, in fact, the Internet, where, it seems, millions of times more information is freely available than will be given in any educational institution. In one Wikipedia, well, it’s still written.

But it’s somehow funny to even imagine that you can become an intelligent specialist in any field just by sitting for some time at the monitor. If you have a brain, hands and the Internet, you can, in fact, learn only what, so to speak, “in battle” requires only a brain, hands and the Internet. And this, to be honest, is a very limited set of... hmm... sciences.

And the point is not only and not so much in the sciences themselves. The most important thing a person receives while studying at a university is the practice of independent creative work. From course to course, you are given less and less formalized tasks, giving less and less introductory instructions. At first everything is simple: a minimum of creativity, a maximum of clear algorithms. Do it, you'll get it. Smoothly, gradually, everything comes to the point where, as the final chord of training, they simply tell you: set yourself a problem, solve it, write about forty pages about it, tell respected people about it - and we will give you the coveted diploma.

Point one. It is almost impossible to learn anything on your own without having a real, practical challenge associated with it. Point two. So suddenly you take and set yourself this very real practical problem, but not too simple (otherwise it’s not interesting, and you’ll learn little in the process of solving it), but not too difficult (otherwise you’ll give up in the middle of the road) - even more difficult. Point three. Point two also needs to be learned first, see point one.

And the greatest value of higher education, the main point of this five-(give or take a year) summer marathon is precisely the acquisition of such a magical skill: the ability to set a problem for yourself, understand it and solve it, learning something new along the way. A person who does not have such a skill is simply not suitable for so-called highly skilled work.

Yes, there are people for whom higher education in this sense does not help. There are also those who already know how to study independently. But there are so few of them that hoping that you belong to them (I could barely resist writing “to us”) is the height of arrogance.

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To study or not to study, that is the question? Isn't 5 years too long to get a higher education? Will this education be needed in the future? Does everyone work in the specialty in which they received their diploma? We analyze the arguments for and against higher education.

Almost all school graduates apply to higher education institutions. Why do they do this? Does everyone want to continue their studies or is this just the desire of the parents, and the child and doesn't think about higher education? Is it worth spending five whole years studying or can you find a good job without education? Do we always end up working in our specialty or does our diploma gather dust on a shelf unnecessarily? Let's speculate and consider the arguments for and against higher education.

Arguments for the need for higher education

1. It’s difficult to get a good job without a diploma.

This is partly true. Many employers are confident that an applicant with a diploma is more educated than without one. They believe that the holder of a diploma is a high-level specialist who knows how to make the right decisions, takes a more responsible approach to completing a task, and knows how to analyze information. Therefore, almost always the first thing the HR department requires when applying for a job is your diploma.

2. Our parents demand that we get a higher education.

And this is also a fairly common occurrence. Many students become such only to please their parents, who were raised with such a vision that without a diploma you definitely cannot find a good job. It even goes so far that the careless the student is fully paid not only for his studies , but also exams, and the diploma itself.

3. Higher education as a transitional stage between childhood and adult independent life

Studying at a higher educational institution is a kind of school of life, especially if the student studies in another city. He learns independence, decision making, responsibility. In the process of studying, the student acquires new knowledge and skills that will greatly help him in the future.

4. Studying as a motor for the brain

Throughout the five years of study, we force our brain to constantly work, which is very useful for it.

5. Student years are the best years

And it's true. There are so many fun and memorable events associated with being a student. Even studying and passing exams is associated not only with difficulties, but also with some striking episodes and incidents. And how many useful contacts and connections you can make while studying!

Arguments for why higher education is not necessary

1. There are many unnecessary disciplines taught in higher education institutions.

This is also true, but this is the training program, and nothing can be done about it. You have to attend lectures and take exams in subjects that will not be needed at all in the future.

2. The quality of knowledge, is it always at the level?

The trend of opening new higher educational institutions is growing, and both universities themselves and their branches are opening. Most of them are commercial with a low passing score. What quality of knowledge they offer is a big question.

Also, the teachers themselves can offer to mark the “present”. Not all of them, of course, but there are some. Again, knowledge will not increase from this type of service.

3. What if the training is paid?

Even if a student wants to study, but did not enroll on a budget, he has to study on a paid basis. Tuition fees for five years significantly affect the family budget.

4. Why waste time

Young people who have just graduated from school often dream of big salaries and promising jobs. Moreover, they need all this here and now; they don’t see the point in spending five years getting an “unnecessary” crust.

6. There are no guarantees

Many people work outside their specialty. Often, former students simply cannot find a job in the relevant specialization and work where they pay. The question is - why did you need to study?

Of course, everyone makes their own choice to study it or not to study it. Some people believe that higher education is not necessary, while others do not stop there and receive a second or even a third higher education. Everyone has their own reasons and priorities.

Being still a very green school graduate, I, of course, thought that a higher education is simply necessary for every person, that without it I would be nobody and no one would call me, that if you do not receive a diploma from some prestigious university, then you will not be able to get a good job, you will generally be like a black sheep, without a diploma.

Teachers, parents and everyone in general constantly told us about this at school, but no one said a word about the fact that in reality everything was completely different.

What's the bottom line? While you are a student and diligently gnawing on the granite of science, you naturally don’t even think about what awaits you after graduation. But this day comes, the diploma is in your hands and you think, that’s it, now I’m a certified SPECIALIST and all I have to do is submit my resume to this or that company, they’ll accept me there with their hands.

After a couple of dozen interviews of the same type, you understand that everything is not as adults told us, not as we imagined it, but so that without experience they won’t hire you even for the most seedy position, experience is needed everywhere, but it’s not there, it must first be obtained, i.e. work, and only then they will hire you, the circle is closed.

After a couple of months of walking and meeting, you realize that, of course, you can be hired, but not by those for whom you studied for 5 years, you can start from the very bottom and may never get into the position of, say, accountant or economist at an enterprise, you just you put your blue or even red diploma in a box in the hope that someday you will work in your specialty, but for now you are just another graduate of an economics university in another hackneyed specialty, who no one needs it without work experience and real knowledge, and not a bunch of theory from textbooks and manuals.

Actually, this truth does not apply to all institutes and areas, if you are a doctor and you graduated from medical school with good grades, you will probably go further and get a job, if you suddenly are a talented bridge designer, then they will also find you a free place in one of the research institutes .

Well, if you decide to become an economist and you have no special talents, no good acquaintances with your companies and no desire to tinker with a green graduate, then, alas, in 90% of cases you will have to work not in your specialty and perhaps you will like another job that is just will eclipse everything you spent 5 years of studying on.

Therefore, I think that higher education in the modern presentation is of course necessary, but it does not provide guarantees of employment, basic knowledge, yes, a good and unforgettable time when you are a student, yes, preparation for adult life, also yes, but no more, the rest will have to be achieved most often from scratch.