University and Industry

A rather common complaint I’ve heard about our courses is that there is too much focus on abstract theory and other seemingly useless materials and too little on practical skills and technologies being used in the industry. The underlying assumption is that Universities are simply producing skilled workers for the industry.

However, I feel that such a view of university education is fundamentally flawed. IMHO, the purpose of universities is for the advancement and dissemination of knowledge. That the knowledge will be useful in one’s career later is simply a beneficial side effect. Tagging university education to the industry is also detrimental in other ways. The industry is usually rather volatile, the set of skills required in a particular job is always changing as new technologies appear on the scene. Rather than attempting to follow the whims of the industry, the universities covers fundamental principles/techniques rather than technologies and tools. The focus is on understand why something works rather than just being able to make use of it.