OK, I stole the title for Dr. Bowden, an Australian University Professor, but the truth of this statement has never been more obvious in light of recent global events. We’ve known for sometime that unexpected events can happen suddenly (remember the Berlin Wall?). But our students today are being asked to study for a degree in a field that may be irrelevant by the time they graduate! Consider these assertions based on indirect research from Dr. Bowden’s team at Swinburne University of Technology:
- Many graduates will never be employed directly in their major field of study.
- Most graduates won’t be working directly in their major filed of study within 5-10 years (e.g. move to management roles).
- Few current projessional practices will last 10 years unchanged.
- Graduates are often recruited for their potential to adapt to emerging situations rather than for the specific range of advanced content they have learned.
The present generation of youth is living with blurred boundaries in a mash-up culture of uncertainty. Identity is an abstraction. Virtual is as relevant as physical. The only thing irrelevant is our insistence on clear-cut boundaries. And herein lies the problem. It may be true that schooling influenced society in the past. But the old-fashioned ways that fit neatly in a box are no longer relevant to the postmodern (even post-human) ways today. Society is trying to influence schooling but the resistance of the old hierarchical structures of this Goliath are not yielding easily. It will require a David with five smooth river rocks to slay this giant. But who has the courage?
Reference: Bowden, John (2007), Learning for an Unknown Future, downloaded from iTunesU in October, 2008.
