The knowledge economy is a myth. We don’t need more universities to feed it 1

The knowledge economy is a myth. We don’t need more universities to feed it

Governments around the world agree that to stay competitive in a global economy, they should become smarter. To boost their know-how intensiveness, the United Kingdom authorities have launched a plan to overtake the university sector. Its goal is to convert universities by creating many more of them. The desire is to increase the number of people in different stages so the United Kingdom can become a more competitive economy.

The concept of understanding the economy is attractive. The handiest trouble is it is essentially a myth. Western economies, including the UK and the United States, aren’t brimming with jobs requiring diploma-stage qualifications. For every task as a skilled computer programmer, there are three jobs flipping burgers. The quickest-growing jobs are low-professional, repetitive ones inside the career sector. One-0.33 of the United States labor marketplace is made from three styles of work: office and administrative help, sales, and meal coaching.
Most people of jobs being created today no longer require degree-stage qualifications.

economy

Within the US in 2010, 20% of jobs required a bachelor’s diploma, 43% required a high-college education, and 26% did now not even need that. In the meantime, 40% of younger humans look at four stages. This indicates over 1/2 of the people gaining stages today will locate themselves running in jobs that don’tt require one. This bleak photo ought to get worse. There was a decline in demand for knowledge-in-depth employees requiring a diploma in 2000. Over forty-seven of present jobs are at risk of being computerized. The occupations that may be computerized out of lifestyles are information-extensive, including auditor, insurance underwriter, and credit analyst. Those least prone to automation are those with hands-on jobs, which include being a masseuse and a firefighter.

The stark mismatch between the variety of people with ranges and the variety of jobs requiring stages has created an era of bored personnel who feel like they’re operating  “bullshit jobsâ€. It’s no surprise that 37% of uk personnel think their jobs make no meaningful contribution to the world at all.
As people with degree-stage education take lower-skilled jobs, the much less educated are pushed in addition down the labor marketplace. In some cases, they’ve been pushed out altogether. Frequently, their best course returned is a high-priced degree to permit them to get a job that is the simplest call for an excessive-school-stage education. We might assume that because the value of higher education goes up, people may be cast off studying. Now, that’s not the case. Higher schooling is a luxury proper: because the price is going up, demand does not decline. Two US economists found that as charges went up for university ranges, there was a totally small fall in call for. According to some calculations, the fee for a degree in the US has long passed 500% since 1985. Over the same timeframe, demand has persisted and is rising swiftly.

The massive boom in demand for education coupled with large rate hikes has created large income streams for universities. Most of these profits have no longer passed in the direction of coaching, research, or attracting the broader public. As a substitute, it’s been spent on increasing administration. Within the uk, two-thirds of universities now have more directors than they do school contributors. Nowadays, universities mechanically invest in appealing buildings, release incredible brand-building campaigns, hire armies of professional managers, and create first-rate health clubs and spa facilities. In the meantime, a school group of workers files feeling like they’re  “being requested to do greater with much less.

They are unsure whether universities are delivering on their central motive. One current look tracked many college students throughout their time there. It uncovered as a substitute worrying photo: after two years at college, 45% of the students confirmed no vast development of their cognitive abilties. After four years, 36% of students had now not improved in their potential to assume and examine problems. In a few publications – inclu,sive of commercial enterprise administration – study, students’ capabilities declined within a few years.

Share

I am a writer, financial consultant, husband, father, and avid surfer. I am also a long-time entrepreneur, investor, and trader. For almost two decades, I have worked in the financial sector, and now I focus on making money through investing in stock trading.