By Benjamin Astell
Australia is in the midst of a skills shortage, with Federal and State Governments wracking their heads as to how to solve for an economy and a variety of important industries without enough educated participants.
Alongside this genuine economic concern comes calls from conservative leaders worldwide to cut back on degrees that are not considered as financially incentivized as degrees in Business, STEM or Hospitality.
This begs the question, should universities be providing funding for potentially esoteric or “niche” academia?
It wasn’t too long ago that I was at a friend’s birthday party, and I was talking to a friend of a friend, the conversation was mildly interesting but eventually it came to a halt when I revealed that I was studying a literature minor and my conversational partner called it “useless” (in less kind terms).
Why do we place so much value on degrees with lucrative, commercial industries attached at the backend, while also ridiculing and scrutinizing degrees that are there for education’s sake?
Ted Cruz, noted Mexican holiday enjoyer and Republican Senator, recently said in response to the Biden Administration’s plans to implement student loan relief, that it would leave tax payers funding “queer pet literature” degrees.
Cruz raises a common conservative talking point that any university education that does not lead into an industry with high job prospects is automatically useless and should not exist.
Other critics, Like English Conservative front runner for Prime Minister – Rishi Sunak, say that it’s “obvious” that some degrees aren’t valuable, his plans for his leadership involving cutting degrees that do not improve student’s “earning potential”.
The Tory leadership hopeful said his plans to reform post-16 education marked “a significant stride towards parity of esteem between vocational and academic education”.
Universities have outlasted empires, have predated calculus, why are we treating them like job farms when they can, ideally, represent the greatest intellectual achievement we have reached as a culture?
Michelle Brown, Senior Coordinator of Student Career Development at RMIT said “Straight answer – no, definitely not” in response to being asked about whether some degrees are better than others in the current job climate.
“We’re all different people, different individuals, different skills (…) for me to say this is the best degree to do is just impossible.”
“There might only be a couple of people who really resonate with it.”
“What it really comes down to is what we individually get out of our qualification.”
The cultural climate that has arisen around university as purely a job factory is not new and is unlikely to go away soon, but it is important to recognize that Universities carry these courses in critical thinking, creativity, and theory for practical reasons.
One RMIT student studying creative writing said that these degrees “make sure you’re getting representation for people” and that “stories are vital for survival”.
So many narratives around “useless” degrees also perpetuate harmful stereotypes and notions surrounding Queer, Indigenous and other marginalized peoples, as well as encouraging anti-intellectualism that is incredibly harmful for our future and our public discourse.
If Victoria is truly “The Education State” then we should be looking at University not just as a gatekeeper for the economy but as an institution anyone can utilize that cares about the future of our world and everyone within it.
For more, watch this video featuring an extended conversation with Michelle Brown. https://youtu.be/mb-anrgOG3A
