Yesterday I graduated in economics and I don't give a f**k. When I've started my studies, I thought that universities are useless as they are. However, working without a contract, every day, for 5€/h made me decide to try to change my mind. After 5 years, I believe that universities are 99% useless. If you regret that you didn't start studying at the university, maybe, you shouldn't.
Don’t misunderstand my words. From my point of view, learning is one of the most essentials things for personal growth and the growth of a fair society. Learning is the best investment for you, but also for others. When one learns, everybody is richer, but it doesn't seems to me that my university understood that. That's why I'm so disappointed with my university. Maybe all this applies only to economics universities, or specifically to my university, however, looking around doesn't show a reassuring picture.
In the first three years, I didn't take it seriously. Like all students, I've started to follow lessons and to do exams. I studied just to pass exams because it seemed to me that the piece of paper after graduation was useful to find a job. In my country, without that piece of paper, firms do not even consider you. Moreover, I didn't know anything about the economy and society.
I've passed all the exams and graduated. However, it wasn't enough, even with a 3 years bachelor course on business management I didn't find a job that satisfied me. I could find a job, but under conditions not very favorable compared to before.
Fortunately, and because I was looking for something new, just before the last exams I discovered Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. I immediately started to deepen the topic, which took my mind completely. After my graduation and my thesis on the network of Bitcoin, I decided that I would discover more.
Then, I had two options: start again a bachelor course in computer science or continue in the field of economics with a master's degree. I chose the second option. I needed more time to study cryptocurrencies, therefore looking for how traditional finance works, it seemed to be a good choice to make a comparison with Bitcoin.
When I enrolled in the master course I thought that, because the class was smaller (we were ten students, not one hundred), professors should be able to teach more effectively and I thought that I could learn something more concretely. What a mistake!
In the beginning, differently from the three-year course, I took it more seriously. I studied as much as I can to understand how the economy works and I've passed exams positively. However, the more I studied, the more I felt that there is something wrong in our society. Besides, the more I understood Bitcoin and the reasons why it was born, the more this feeling was strengthened, also because I had a direct comparison with what professors were explaining. I was confused, but I wanted to clear my mind.
At one point, I realized why my university was a loss of time. When you are interested in something, you want to discover everything about it. In some way, this curiosity forced me to find an efficient way to study and memorize things. I started questioning which is the best way to learn as fast as possible and how it works the learning process. I've started making questions. I've started watching videos and I've started to take a lot of notes on different subjects.
At the same time, I was constrained by the course program and by professor's lessons. The teachers simply read and repeated the slides or wrote long formulas on the blackboard and that's for every lesson. They entered the classroom and began to explain similarly to automated robots, as if they had no one in front of them. It is well known that the average capacity to pay attention lasts towards 45 minutes, without considering that practically nobody was listening to their lessons because they were too boring.
Breaking news: I can read the slides! I can do it at home when I want. Looking at a professor that writes a formula doesn't teach you anything, to understand mathematics you have to derive it by yourself. There are no shortcuts, you have to learn-by-doing and through experience. Instead, we were morally obliged to go to the lesson and follow these useless explanations so as not to affect the vote.
In this way, the university was slowing me in the process of learning, instead of the contrary. How many hours wasted on these lessons!
Furthermore, they classify us with the votes, but they don't know anything of what we know. Students are encouraged to say and write what professors want to hear, not to think with their minds. Then, they give basically everyone high marks to not compromise the prestige of the university (universities are financed by results). Find them in their offices to ask for some clarifications on the lessons was impossible for the majority of them, so students must answer their doubts alone without help. And because we are all humans, they are plenty of prejudices. One time, one teacher said to me that my project was exhausting because she thought that I was asking for information from my classmates during lessons. In reality, my classmates were asking me for information because I studied econometrics on my own and nobody was understanding what the professor was teaching. Another time, a professor defined me as a nightmare because I was asking too much, distracting him from talking gossips with another professor, and because I said I wanted to go to his office every week to talk about my thesis. I have also tried to suggest to them what would have been more effective for me to learn. I had no answer.
They told us for five years about efficiency and effectiveness, but along with my studies, I've started to see all their inefficiencies in teaching. They have no idea how the learning process works and maybe neither the economy. So, now, I doubt that they didn't understand what they were teaching.
Shortly, they have no time to be professors. They are often employed in other jobs, so for them, teaching is only a way to increase their earnings. They don't care about their students and even less about the economy. They have any incentive to do that. At the end of the month, they check their sure salary and that's all. There are no problems in society! These professors, in my opinion, are disconnected from reality.
For me, teaching and more generally the economy, doesn't work like that. Professors are essential to get us out of this crisis, instead, they are one of the reasons why students go abroad to find a more dignified life, leaving their families and friends. I don't owe anything to them and the university.
At the same time, I understand that it's not easy to be a good professor. You have to be wise. Maybe, this profession is the most difficult in the world, but we absolutely need good professors. I say all of this because I've talked with a lot of students in different classrooms and more or less we all share the same opinion.
For me, universities and colleges should be the places where new ideas should arise, where professors and students collaborate to find creative ideas to resolve problems related to our society. I ever imagined universities as places of worship, where to find information, colleagues and friends. And sometimes this happens. During my courses, I also found good professors able to communicate to me and which taught me a lot, and I thank them. I also found some friends, smarter than me, which helped me to understand a better way to study. Despite everything, I had good times.
So maybe the utility is higher than 1% as my angry part said, and this doesn't apply to all universities (I'm curious to know if it's the same in other universities). Perhaps I'm angry because, in reality, I loved the idea of the university. But the key point is that something should change. Otherwise, if most professors teach in this way, maybe it is better to study by yourself. With the web and the internet there are a lot of resources and possibilities and even if it will be more difficult, it could also be satisfying. There is nothing you can't learn by yourself with passion and willpower.
Here [1] [2] you can find some resources gently suggested by some of my friends, you can find the most books or scientific articles you want for free. If you ask me, I think that learning should be free for all. This is because, when you learn, everybody is richer.
