Determine your degree relevance before you study

The joy that comes when you find out that your name is among the lucky few students selected for public university is ecstatic.

But four years of study in the university is strenuous.

Therefore, one must be sure that the degree program they are about to study in is worth it, because regret is worse than failure.

Universities often get criticised for offering degrees to students that aren’t in sync with industrial reality.

But things don’t go wrong, they start wrong.

It is, therefore, imperative to first determine the relevance of your degree program in the industry before getting started.

In Malawi, the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) is the body tasked with the selection of students into public universities.

Before it was set by an Act of Parliament in 2010, each university conducted its own selection which resulted in several issues.

Among them, some students got selected into multiple universities, depriving other deserving students a fair chance for selection but NCHE came in to harmonise the selection process.

It reviews the application submissions from students and determines whether they meet the requirements of the program they applied for in relation to their grades, among other parameters.

Once this process is completed, NCHE approves or rejects the application by also looking at the space available in the program.

Those who are lucky get admitted to programs of their choice, but others are redirected to other fields of study.

That’s where the devil rears its head in detail.

These redirected students often struggle to pull out for fear of losing their already found rare opportunity of studying at a public university, among other stakes.

So, they force themselves to study programs they never dreamed of. They go by the popular Chichewa saying, “Yagwa m’bale n’ndiwo” (convenience).  

Another reason is the illusion that a public university degree is more prestigious than the one obtained from a private university.

However, they feel short changed when they struggle to secure a job after graduating, blaming the university for wasting their time and money.

This is a serious problem that we must all draw our attention to.

Therefore, NCHE must do a thorough audit in all the public universities to ascertain that the programs they offer are in alignment with the needs of the industry.

Additionally, academia isn’t detached from the reality of the industry, but bureaucracy sometimes makes it far-fetched to ring in institutional changes.

In that regard, NCHE needs to speed up the approval of accreditation or review of programs so that both universities respond to the needs of the industry in earnest.

Further, universities must create an educational environment that is a microcosm of the real industry. Failure to do this makes it harder for them to adapt when they complete their programs.

No wonder, they feel conned when industrial reality flies in front of their face.

For students themselves, they have their role to play. First, they must score good points in MSCE exams so that they get admitted into the program of their choice.  

Secondly, they must seize the opportunity of switching over programs when chance pops up. Depending on one’s grade average point (GPA), it is allowed for generic students to change majors.

So, this is a chance for redirected students to get to the program of their choice rather than cling to something they dread.

Spending four years or more studying something you aren’t sure of is risky. So, do your research before you decide which degree program to enroll in.

The remedy to regret is depression for spending four years or more chasing a paper whose relevance is an illusion.