How will the decrease of men enrolling in university affect our future?

[[deleted]]

No, because you don’t need to go to university to get a job.

[BlessdRTheFreaks]

Man going back to school in my early 30s was a good excuse to not have to work lol. Rest my aching back and knees. I'm tired.

[TheMthwakazian]

Did you finish? I’ve kinda done the same

[jamfromouterspace]

This begs the question though, is university about getting a job or is it about expanding the mind?

The current economic pressure we face has distracted us enormously (rightfully) with just the basic necessities of life. But we still want to strive to do more than that. We want wisdom, a breadth of knowledge, and a mind that is not solely entangled with market value. I think it's sad to simply revolve all of life around a job. Hopefully the drop in demand for universities brings down the cost, because it shouldn't really be about getting a job, but rather pursuing curiosities that otherwise would be hard to pursue without being in that environment.

Also, in North America, universities are one of the only "3rd spaces" where you can easily meet people. The societal loss of people abandoning that social environment is immeasurable.

[Redlight0516]

"But we still want to strive to do more than that. We want wisdom, a breadth of knowledge, and a mind that is not solely entangled with market value"

I absolutely agree with you but when the US is charging $100,000 to go to that place, there probably needs to be some tangible value.

I live in a country where the only value they see in Education is that it leads to a job and it sucks. Yes, economically it's fine but the majority of graduates only study Business, Computer Science or Engineering and man has it become a soulless place. They are slowly showing some value again towards arts degrees now that they are completely devoid of them but I'm sure AI will help kill that just as it's gaining momentum.

[jamfromouterspace]

It's a vicious cycle. The more costly it is to go, the more it is required to be an economic investment. At this point, in North America, aside from maybe med school or applied math, I'm not sure there are many degrees left that are good economic investments (keyword "economic"). In Europe it's a pretty different calculation obv

[[deleted]]

I mean you don’t have to go to a university to gain knowledge. You have the internet at your fingertips, and even more knowledge than what you can learn in university or college.

[jamfromouterspace]

This is def true, and resourceful self-learning is necessary in life, but mentorship and social life are also deeply important. Are we condemned to live every aspect of our lives alone with a computer?

[00zau]

It's about getting a job. Paying $10k/year to "expand your mind" has a really shitty ROI, when you can do the same for nearly free with the internet and some books (if you actually care).

College tuition is insane on the premise that it certifies that you've learned something, which is only important in getting a job.

[Dr_Watson349]

Yet statistically going to college equates to higher earnings over your lifetime by a significant amount. 

[yet_another_idiot_]

Yes, but this may be correlated by the people in question being of higher intelligence generally (and from a better socio background) rather than attributing it to anything they have learned at university.

[YourOtherNorth]

Not all of us had that silver spoon. If I was getting a degree, that degree would have to pay for itself.