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Useless college majors mythbusted
Illustration courtesy of Casey MarleyCasey Marley - Contributor
camarley@uab.edu
It's the end of the summer semester here at UAB. As finals week ensues for those still in Birmingham for the summer term, UAB anxiously awaits the arrival of its new freshman class. The question awaiting those freshmen: What will you major in?
College majors have been a debated topic in this country for nearly 50 years. This changed in 1967 when the then governor of California Ronald Reagan created a "major" precedent in the name of saving money: cutting funding to programs that do not have a direct tie to job outcomes or only fulfill “intellectual curiosity” — learning for the sake of learning — according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.
This change of thought in the world of higher education has stuck.
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Why get a college education?
Letter to the Editor. Illustration by Sarah FaulknerMatt King, Ph.D. - Assistant Professor of Philosophy
mattking@uab.edu
Dear Students,
What’s the main purpose of a college education? Increasingly, we hear that it is to help you get a job. While no doubt securing a bachelor’s degree helps one on the job market, this thinking is dangerous. If we allow that the value of a degree lies primarily in what the credentials will get you, it suggests that fields of undergraduate study that don’t contribute directly to employment outcomes for its students should be scrapped. It means that we should tie the value of departments and programs directly to how their students fare on the job market.
