Some people hate critique – I love it

A bit about myself: I am now graduating with a BEng in Mechanical Engineering. I have become the first one in my family to ever complete a university degree, thanks to the generous support of The Kellner Family Foundation, my family, and the university. My next steps will lead to Imperial College London to study Computing Science MSc.

Many believe that studying a university degree is all about acquiring expert knowledge in a specific field, which would serve them for life. However, I do not necessarily agree. Although factual knowledge may be permanent, it is not always permanently useful, since all the domains keep rapidly developing. Furthermore, most facts are easily accessible online, which makes some people wonder: why even bother going to university. The answer is simple: transferable skills. These are the true gold that can be gained through university studies; factual knowledge is just a bonus.

One of the most important skills I’ve learnt through university education is to seek constant learning and improvement. One way to achieve this is by asking for advice and feedback from others to identify shortcomings and then finding ways to improve. I believe that this is the way to achieve true excellence. Some people hate critique – I love it. If I were to be told that my work is perfect, I would be disappointed because it would mean that I have stopped improving. Therefore, I understand the need to find someone who can show me my shortcomings, helping me to improve and further grow.

My experience at the university also taught me to be critical and reflective not only when absorbing new information but also towards myself. It is easy to read a news article or a post on social media and believe every statement; being critical and reflective is necessary to reveal the truth. When I absorb new information, I automatically ask myself questions, such as: “Do these statistics actually tell the whole story?”, and “If not, what might they be trying to hide?”. This mindset allows me to read between the lines and provides me with additional insights about the situation.

Saying all that, I believe that top universities should excel in helping their students to acquire these crucial transferable skills, which, based on my experience, seems to be the case. Looking at the current trends, people are changing their jobs at an increasing pace, sometimes even after only 2 or 3 years. Furthermore, new types of jobs also appear more rapidly than ever before. If you are about to enter a university now, it is quite likely that the job you will be doing in 10 years does not exist yet. Therefore, most of the factual knowledge gained through university studies will no longer be applicable. However, what remains are transferable skills – these last forever. As such, having a highly developed personality and transferable skills makes it much easier to change jobs throughout life. They give us the freedom to choose and do what we enjoy, without being bound by the title of our university degree.

For these reasons, I believe that both universities and students should focus mainly on building and expanding transferable skills, rather than memorising facts. Doing so makes university studies a way to both develop our personality and open doors to the future.