Some people think that universities should provide graduates with the knowledge and skills needed in the workplace. Other think that the true function of a university should be to give access to knowledge for its own sake, regardless of whether the course is useful to an employer. What, in your opinion, should be the main function of a university.

The global recession has led to a rise in unemployment, leading some to believe that

universities

should primarily provide job-related skills and knowledge. Others,

however

, believe that

universities

should return to the essence of nurturing people and do not take too much into account the requirements of employers. My view is that

universities

can be both knowledge-providing and job-oriented at the same time. It is essential to acknowledge that

universities

offer specialist courses that are more geared towards developing the mindset of students and providing the necessary knowledge base rather than how to adapt to the workplace. According to the data on the employment orientation of

university

students, the majority of

graduates

do not

work

in the same field as their

university

major.

However

, their job skills are much higher than those of their counterparts who have been working for several years without a

university

education.

This

shows that there is not as strong a correlation between the areas of study of

university

students and their ability to

work

as people assume. If

university

courses were designed to be directly employee-oriented, they would be no different from competitors who had worked for several years straight out of high school and would

therefore

be less competitive for employment.

However

, it is not possible to completely disregard future

work

requirements. Once the fields knowledge has been learned, it is necessary to deepen the student's understanding of the theory with practice.

For example

, after graduating with a law degree, it takes more than one year of internship before entering the legal profession.

Furthermore

, employers will prefer

graduates

whose curriculum is designed to be more practical, which will save them the time of training new staff and increasing the competitiveness of

graduates

. In conclusion, I reiterate my belief that a modern

university

has a responsibility to balance the design of its programmes to educate people and

work

practices so that

graduates

are both professionally competent and ready for the competitive labour market.