WRITING TASK 2
You should spend about 40 minutes on this task
Write about the following topic:
Some people think that universities should provide graduates with the knowledge and skills needed in the workplace. Others 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?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
You should write at least 250 words.
Education experts have spent years poring over surveys and compiling data, trying to come up with conclusive evidence as to the main function of a university. It seems in recent years the opinion swings from one extreme to the other. This essay will look at the arguments regarding this hot issue.
One of the more compelling arguments for universities providing graduates with expertise for their future careers finds its origins in economics. Parents have been investing in their children’s college studies in hope that they will earn a decent job with stable salary. Consequently, career preparation is becoming increasingly vital to the young people, especially in today"s tight labor market with fewer jobs than before. Some people thus have called for universities to be more vocation-oriented because that way not only the graduates’ employment rates would be enhanced but the students be motivated for being given an opportunity to succeed in their future professions. From a helicopter view, in countries, particularly developing ones, the economic advances need numerous professional talents in the fields like finance, management, legislation, medicine, thereby putting universities in a pivotal position of nurturing these professionals.
However, reaching the conclusion that other functions, such as giving access to knowledge for its own sake, are no longer important is biased. For hundreds of years, especially in the west, the undergraduate education is, indeed, a liberal education, which means the undergraduates learn a wide range of curriculums such as psychology, economics, politics that has no direct relations to jobs. The upsides of this is that it firstly enables students to become broad-minded and help them lay a solid theoretical foundation, then they will be able to choose the most appropriate field based on their own interests for further studies.
Personally, without suggesting that imparting career-oriented knowledge and skills is the sole function of modern universities, I think it is by no means a less important one. In any way, it is now increasingly acting as a gauge for judging a university and therefore becoming one of the primary functions of a university.
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