There’s a line I hear every once in awhile from profs (mainly, but not exclusively, in the humanities) saying something to the effect of: their job is not to prepare students for the world of work; rather, they want to prepare students’ minds to be critical thinkers or better citizens, or something like that. Actually, it’s usually phrased less delicately, like: “I’m not preparing kids to be cannon fodder for the knowledge economy”; “I don’t give a damn what employers think, I only care about my students”, etc., etc.
Now, this is admirable, in a way. Universities certainly shouldn’t be training people for specific jobs (and to be fair, I don’t think there are that many people arguing this). Even where universities are offering professional education, as a rule they should be training people for diverse careers in a profession, not a particular job.
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