Having recently spoken to many people from various niche industries, such as graphic design, online marketing and public relations, I have found the general consensus to be that as a whole, the way we are taught at higher levels does not reflect what is happening in the “real world”.

However, before we launch a full-scale attack on Universities across the country, let’s take a minute to understand why many courses seem to be struggling to keep up...

I began University in September 2004 studying toward a degree in web design. It is fair to say that all project work; the actual meat of the course, had been created and finalised at least 1 year before I started. At the time, the course would teach an array of skills ranging from image optimisation through to basic PHP/MySQL. At this point I must confess that what was being taught was being taught quite well, with most tutors possessing a decent understanding of the industry in question and deploying their knowledge in an understandable and tangible manner.

The problem arises as we move forward with the course just one year down the line. Web technologies change rapidly and to keep up, you must read, research and most importantly experiment in your own time in order to keep a hold of what is going on in industry, and this is where the gap between the course and the real world begins to emerge.

I was finding that despite my personal progression through the course, more and more learning was becoming independent. By the time I reached the mid-way point I had realised that the course was largely redundant and that to succeed I would have to take action into my own hands. This came in the form of freelance projects and lots of reading.

Understandably, this angers a lot of people who have paid a fair whack for a 3 year course that, by the end of it is still teaching methods and techniques from at least 4 years ago. To give an example of this, my web design course by 2007, was still not teaching CSS because it was not in the teaching criteria.

So what can be done?

Quite simply, academia in respect to fast moving industries needs to be as reactive, nay, pro-active as the real world. Courses should be revised at least every year* ensuring that new industry-level techniques are being taught and subsequently the people on the course are leaving with much higher job prospects. After all, this is the point of University.

However, it would be wrong of me to point blame at the Universities and victimise every student out there. Supplementary to any course, you should expect a fair amount of self-teaching; University was never about being spoon-fed every morsel of information you need to succeed. At this particular event, somebody described University as opening the door; and you must walk through it.

While I find value in this sentiment, I can’t help thinking that £12,000 is an awful lot of money to spend on a door being opened.

What do you think? Are Universities failing or should students spend more time on self-development? Let us know in the comments!

*I am unaware how often courses are revised