Throwback to the beginning of my undergraduate education
Back in 2014, I applied to nearly 50 universities. I was already pretty clear what I wanted to do in life: being the boss of a multi-billion dollar company. I just turned 20 and I had not yet any clue how to achieve it. University seemed to be the first logical step. Well, I was urged to by my mother, grandmother, and the whole rest of the society.That’s how I ended applying for nearly 50 universities in Germany. I didn’t care about most study degrees but hell yeah better studying than not having a clue at all.Most of my 50 applications were rejected. My average mark in my German Abitur was 3.0, not the best mark you can have. In school, I didn’t (and I still don’t) care about History, Religion, German literature, and other pretty boring subjects. My two majors were social sciences and English. I loved them and I still do. As already mentioned, I knew exactly what I wanted to become: an entrepreneur. I still sought for advice how to start. The smartest decision at this time was to enroll for an international study program in a newly opened university — University of Applied Sciences Rhine-Waal.
This was probably the best decision I made at that time and it really determined my future self.Biggest jackpot of my current university: My study degree “International Business & Social Sciences” is entirely in English (English study programs are a great rarity in Germany).I always wanted to do international business so this was the perfect fit. My English skills were already pretty good at that time thanks to some time I worked in Australia. But I had no clue of real business English. Right now I know every damn accounting, business law, economics, and even supply chain management term. It is a huge and great achievement and one of the reasons why I don’t hate the education system for 100%.The education system does not suck completely but it needs an urgent renovation— I speak especially for business related studies.Indeed, I think that the current education system works pretty well for Bachelor, Master, and Doctor of science. But it completely fails when it comes to the Bachelor of Arts.
Why we need to abolish the Bachelor of Arts and replace it with a better system
If you are pursuing a Bachelor of Arts because you want to become a great business manager, an entrepreneur, an esteemed designer, or a world class programmer (even if it’s a Bachelor of Science) the current education system will not prepare you for your goal.
The education system will force you to go a detour and take classes you really don’t give a shit about.
Let’s talk about my example. I want to become a successful entrepreneur. To achieve this goal I know exactly what I need (and want) to learn about: Accounting, Finance, Economics, Business Law, and basics in Computer Sciences.
Here comes the problem: The current education system does not allow you to focus on the subjects you really care about but it forces you to take required classes.The degree is something which is so established in our society but nobody really knows why you need it. Isn’t it in the end more about the skills you have earned?We need to abolish the Bachelor of Arts and the Master of Arts degree. It simply makes no sense to pursue a degree full of courses which are just a detour for your individual goal.Here is the solution: We replace the Bachelor and Master degree with a CV like collection of taken classes.
Skills CV
Instead of pursuing a Bachelor degree with required classes let’s pursue an official certificate which states all taken classes over a lifetime.1. You collect all your achievements of your lifetime on your skills CV. It will not reflect a learning outcome you achieved in the first 3–5 years of your professional career but it will rather be an up to date certificate where you are.
2. The Skills CV will include and acknowledge every course you took and publication you have written. It doesn’t matter where you published an article or where you took the course. You can easily endorse massive open online courses (MOOCs) you passed successfully onto your Skills CV. You can switch universities each semester depending on the offered courses. Courses you pass will just be added to your skills CV — easy and simple it is. Internships will be added. Everything which brings you a step forward will be added.
3. It will diminish the equality of applicants. If employers can choose between highly differentiated applicants they can easier detect the best fit. They will see on the skills CV exactly which skills the applicant has achieved and can choose accordingly.
4. You don’t need to take any required class you don’t care about.
5. Studying will be fun again.
The Thing about Exams
Exams suck. But why exactly? Every student who has ever been enrolled in a study program will know the problem.
The education system is based on memorizing knowledge you find on Google and Wikipedia within a few seconds.
So why do we currently teach (or force) students to memorize random facts which you have access to with you mobile phone within seconds? We need to step away from memorized learning. Times have changed. Currently, you have access to every dictionary, encyclopedia, and pretty much the whole knowledge of the world in your pockets. Soon you can find this massive knowledge in your glasses, later it is probably implemented in your brain.Is this bad at all? No, I don’t think that the abundant access to information is bad for current or upcoming students. But we need to face the reality now. Currently, we have free access to knowledge, in a few years we will have free access to artificial intelligence which will think a lot faster than our human brain. As we see it is totally unneeded to let students memorize facts.The education system needs to realign and encourage innovative thinking! When it comes to innovation machines will not overtake us, humans, that fast. Sure they will be able to think intelligently about extremely difficult tasks but will they be able to innovate?How can we encourage innovative thinking? The answer is entrepreneurship. Not everyone is an entrepreneur, that’s for sure. But everyone can join an entrepreneurial venture. This entrepreneurial venture will then be recognized and acknowledged on your skills CV. That’s possible because the degree is no longer called Bachelor or Master and a break to pursue a business venture is no longer a bad thing but it will show up on the skills CV as a huge achievement. Thereby it doesn’t matter at all if the venture is a success of a failure.
A break to pursue a business venture is no longer a bad thing but it will be show up on the skills CV as a huge achievement.
An education system will bring our world forward when you can develop your own solutions to current problems by applying the information you can access and learn online. We need to step back from the reality of writing boring scientific reports in study degrees like Business. Students in the area of business, design, computer sciences (ASO) need to focus on shaping the future instead of reviewing the past.Students need to be encouraged to work on a project which is solving a current problem. If it works out to be helpful we need to make clear that working on making this business venture a success is a thousand times more valuable than just quitting the project and starting the new semester from the blank.If you take a break to pursue a business venture it doesn’t mean that you stop learning it just means that you are learning differently. We need to respect that.
Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed it feel free to follow my blog: www.mariusschober.com/blog