When I started looking at universities, I got excited. I was intrigued by the various programmes, campuses, and the overall experience that everyone seemed to be talking about.
Then I saw the costs and spoke with people who actually graduated.
Now I’m confused why everyone pretends this makes sense.
Are the fees for a decent university in Pakistan really in lakhs? Going abroad costs millions. And the fees increase every year.
Okay, I get inflation, but half these places don’t even tell you how much more you’re paying next year. 10k more? 40k? 90k? You won’t find out until next year when you’re already enrolled and stuck.
My cousin spent four years paying fees that kept increasing. Now he’s working and told me straight up: “Nothing from university applies to my job. They trained me when I started.”
So, did he pay all that money for training that turned out to be unnecessary?
My friend learnt graphic design on YouTube. He may have invested a total of around 50k in his training. He’s freelancing now, making more than people with degrees.
And I’m supposed to ignore this? Is accepting the expensive path that becomes more expensive every year “right”?
MIT put their courses online for free. Stanford has lectures on YouTube. Every skill universities teach — there are tutorials for it. The information isn’t locked away anymore. So what am I paying for? The degree. The paper that says I sat in classrooms.
Universities convinced everyone that, regardless of whether you learn something or excel at it, you need their approval to be taken seriously by others.
But why, anyway? If I can prove I know how to do something, why do I need to prove I attended classes first?
Some companies figured it out
Google doesn’t require degrees for most jobs now. Neither does Apple nor Tesla. They realised that degrees do not indicate whether a person is capable of performing the work.
What does it tell them? Examining their skills is one way to find out. Examining their portfolio provides valuable insights. You get to see their actual work.
A designer shows their designs. A programmer shows their code. That’s real proof. A degree just says, “I paid and attended.” Not the same thing. More companies are doing this. Skills tests. The focus is on examining real-world work scenarios. Individuals are developing their own certifications. The four-year degree is becoming optional, and people haven’t noticed yet.
Micro-credentials make more sense
Instead of a “Bachelor’s in Computer Science” that takes four years:
- Python Certification (2 months)
- Database Management (1 month)
- Web Development (6 months)
Each proves you can do something specific. Each costs way less. Each takes way less time. This already exists. AWS certifications. Google certifications. Tech certifications. People get hired with these. They cost like 1% of university tuition.
We made trades sound bad
At some point, we decided that trade work is “less than” getting a degree. Everyone pushes kids to university even when it makes no sense. But plumbers make excellent money. Electricians make good money. They started earning years before degree holders, with no debt. But we tell everyone, “You need university, or you failed.”
Why? Because universities need customers.
Someone who wants to be a chef doesn’t need four years of university. They need culinary training. Kitchen experience. But we made it feel like not having a degree means you’re a failure.
What should happen
This makes more sense:
- Figure out what you want to do
- Take tests proving you can do it
- Get certified
- Start working
Avoid taking arbitrary courses. No paying for stuff you don’t use. No four years for something you can learn in months. Just prove you can do it and start. Coding bootcamps already do this. Online portfolios. GitHub. These matter more than degrees now because they show actual work.
Universities will fight back
Obviously. They have buildings and staff to pay for. They need tuition. They’ll say you need a degree to be credible. That micro-credentials “aren’t rigorous enough.”
Translation: “If people realise they don’t need us, we’re in trouble.”
Yeah, they should be. They’re charging insane money for free information, giving credentials that matter less every year, and raising fees without even telling you how much more you’ll pay.
“But critical thinking”
People always say, “University teaches you to think, not just job skills.”
If so, then why does it cost so much? Can’t I learn to think through books and actually do things?
And if it worked, we’d see better results. Instead, people graduate unable to do basic research because they spent four years memorising for exams. Critical thinking comes from solving real problems. You don’t need tuition for that.
This is already happening
Developers get hired from bootcamps. Designers from portfolios. Writers from their writing. Marketers from the campaigns they ran.
Degrees are becoming optional. It’s just taking time for everyone to realise.
Who’s fighting it? There are individuals with degrees who refuse to acknowledge that they have overpaid for their education. Universities that need money. Some older individuals cannot envision an alternative perspective.
But I can see the system doesn’t work. Why can’t they?
What I’m actually saying
Learning matters. Skills matter. Education matters. However, spending excessive amounts on outdated information merely to obtain a certificate that indicates your financial capability is unreasonable.
I’m watching graduates with debt and useless degrees. I’m watching people skip university and do fine. I’m watching companies stop requiring degrees. And everyone’s acting like I should just go to university anyway because “that’s what you do”? The four-year degree made sense maybe decades ago. It doesn’t anymore.
Knowledge is free. Skills can be tested. Degrees are optional. This concept is obvious to me. Why isn’t it obvious to everyone else?
We need to let people learn what they need, prove they can do it, and build their lives without spending years and tonnes of money on permission slips from places that haven’t earned their monopoly. The system’s broken. Some of us just aren’t pretending anymore.