Three months from now I will be graduating from university. I tried to recollect all the things that I have studied for the pass three years and ask myself – what have I learnt? I may be getting a university degree, but am I getting a university education?
Not long ago I had an interesting conversation with a lecturer. He teaches Financial Statements Analysis, and hence he is the ‘guru’ in analysing firms. This course has neither tests nor exams; just assignments and surveys. Every week after class we are to report anonymously what we learnt in his class, after which he will publish them in the course website. He told us that “Judging by the surveys that the students have done, I finally come to a conclusion that I have overestimated your knowledge in accounting”. He went on saying “How do you explain final-year accounting students not knowing the real meaning of equity?”
I was struck by this question. To be honest, I took more than a dozen of accounting courses but surprisingly I could not apply any of them in my daily life. How pathetic is that? I went for class, I sat by myself, took some notes, studied for exams and got good marks. I was happy doing this; it served me well. It secured me with a string of A’s on my academic transcript. But what is the significant of it if I’m not able to think for myself? It is indeed very sad how we go to university and not being able to think for ourselves. What is the value of a degree then?
What is more intriguing is how we, the students tend to reply to this issue. Some blamed the lecturers for not teaching properly, some said they forgot, some said the lecturer mumbles a lot, some said the course is too fact-oriented, so on and so forth. Surprisingly, no one said anything about themselves. They blamed everyone else but themselves.
Most of us forget – in university, who is actually doing, or ought to be doing the learning? Is it the lecturer or the students? And more importantly, who is at loss when we don’t get the education we paid thousands of dollars for? We all know the answer to that. The lecturer is not worse off by any chance at all. Rather, we are. We pay for university education; hence university education is what we should get.
Sometimes, we find ourselves lacking with a sense of purpose. We study for the sake of getting a degree. This is an extrinsic motivation which only gives us satisfaction in a short period of time. In the long run, we will regret. Are we able to turn back time then? Can we go back to university? Imagine the time that is lost, the effort that is wasted, and the knowledge that we could have learnt but due to ignorance, we refused to learn.
I wonder, how many of us have a purpose in life? How many of us have dreams to achieve? Are we even allowed to dream in the first place? One of the Malay dilemmas is that, we feel that we are weak. Our leaders tell us, and treated us as if we are weak. We are told that for some reason, we cannot outdo our non-Malay competitors and that we need affirmative action. How are we ever going to have confidence in ourselves? How are we ever going to dream big?
I keep reminding myself, there's many people out there who is willing to kill to be in my position, to be able to come and learn in a university. I hope other students would remind that to themselves as well.
Tags:
accounting, education
Posted at: 06:56 AM | Add Comment
