Universities provide a valuable service to society. They foster the intellectual capital required to advance a country’s economy and provide services to its citizens. Businesses and other institutions rely on skilled graduates to enhance their productivity and provide innovation. As such, it is incumbent upon universities, as the breeding grounds for those expected to shoulder the majority of this burden, to prepare their students for these challenges. There are a number of reasons application should be emphasized over theory, which fall into a few broad categories:
1. Direct economic benefits of an application emphasis
The benefits to companies and other institutions are obvious: students trained for the workforce will require less training, be more productive and have a greater understanding of the challenges facing industry today. Exposure to current problems facing companies means that students can leverage that experience to positively impact their employer immediately. Emphasizing workplace applications and expectations will result in employees who understand the expectations right away and are far less likely to disappoint employers.
This greater productivity is especially important in employees’ formative years as they are still inclined towards innovation and challenging the boundaries before family and other obligations wilt these desires for creativity. Employees who can hit the ground running and apply what they know right away provide that much more opportunity for technical innovation, medical advancements and other revolutionary impacts.
The oft-held snobbery that universities teach something fundamentally different than colleges is fallacious. While universities have the capacity to teach higher-level professional skills such as medicine, law and engineering, these skills are still ‘applied’ in the sense that they serve a distinct purpose. Just as a plumber must learn how to fix and install piping, an engineer must learn how to design it, not just appreciate its function.
2. Benefits to students
Students also benefit from an application focus. It is not uncommon to start a new job and have to be trained from the basics, and students are left to wonder, ‘why did I waste all that time learning at school-shouldn’t I have learned this there?’ Not only does an application focus ease the transition from school to work, it also opens up opportunities for students to provide greater value to the organization right away. This means higher salaries to pay off student debt and quicker opportunity for advancement. There will be a great deal less stress on students if they enter the workforce knowing what to expect.
Frankly, application is more interesting for the vast majority of students. How many students end up becoming disenfranchised with university and end up underemployed with their skills underutilised? Those with an interest in theory should be able to embrace application, and an application focus ensures top workers are not discouraged by their undergraduate degrees.
Furthermore, application embraces more types of learners. While auditory learners will still benefit from lectures, kinaesthetic and visual learners can benefit more from practical demonstrations and experimentation. While an argument can be levelled that learning about application can become obsolete, so too can theory. While theory may reflect the challenges of decades or even centuries ago, application emphasizes the challenges today. While, ultimately, students must themselves be accountable for learning to adapt to future changes in technology, learning about the most recent technology results in students who are closer to this.
3. Does not compromise and can even enhance deeper understanding
To a certain extent, the dichotomy between theory and application my opponent will surely lament is a false one. Learning about application does not preclude students from understanding fundamental natural laws and principles. Students will often need to learn an underlying principle to apply it effectively. However, starting with the application gives the principles context that allows the students to directly engage with the theory.
Students will have greater motivation to learn theories when they can directly understand the implications. Often, students are incentivized to a ‘study to the test’ mentality, whereby all relevant theory and formulae are memorized and subsequently forgotten post-exam. Realizing the utility of the content they are learning will encourage students to fully absorb and comprehend the theory: in fact they must if they are to apply it. Giving the theory real-world significance will encourage greater absorption on behalf of the students.
Another main justification behind a theory-based approach is the supposed benefits of ‘learning about learning.’ One may not need all the math in a day-to-day career, but learning difficult content teaches us about how to learn, research, etc. While there is certainly merit in developing these skills, there is no reason this cannot also be learned through application. Spending less time on theory means more advanced application can be studied and the additional motivation to students will open the door for higher-level topics.
This exposure to higher-level topics is one of the key benefits of application-focused learning. Once the interest has been sparked, students who wish to develop a greater understanding of the theory can opt into undergraduate research or graduate studies. While our society certainly needs some members focused on research and theory, the requirement represents a small fraction of students in attendance at universities. Rather than encumbering otherwise brilliant professionals with clunky theory, this can be reserved for those who have a passion for deeper understanding and the vast majority of students can focus on developing the skills they need to be successful in life. Spending class time on theory is especially wasteful in modern times, where the underlying theory is often readily available from ubiquitous books, journals, and online resources. Application and workplace examples, however, require a firmer hand in the form of the guided instruction that universities provide.
It is clear that students, especially those interested, will still learn theory if universities place a greater emphasis on application and job preparedness. It is also true that the vast majority of students will benefit from such an approach, as will companies, institutions and our overall economy. Therefore, universities should place a greater emphasis on application as opposed to theory.
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