Seven reasons you should get a higher education

First we had SABC COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng fudging his matric results and now we have Dr Pallo Jordan faking a PhD. Are our leaders really out to prove that higher education is nothing more than a nice-to-have when it comes to getting a job?

Despite what our esteemed leaders may lead us to believe, higher education is closely linked to development and needs to be taken seriously – if not by our leaders than at least by ourselves.

Here are seven reasons why you should get a higher education.

1. Struggle credentials notwithstanding, most jobs require a diploma or a degree just to get you in the door. Whether you’re stuck making the coffee or off climbing the corporate ladder after that is, in large part, up to you.
2. You will have an opportunity to broaden your horizons. People often enter university or college with a fixed idea of what they want to achieve only to come out the other side with something completely different. You may go in wanting to be a high school teacher and come out an environmental lawyer.
3. Where basic education sometimes does little more than teach you to pass a test, higher education aims to get you thinking outside the box.
4. You’ll make friends and acquaintances who will stick around for the rest of your life. This isn’t so much about having an album full of drunk pics as it is about both forming lifetime bonds and practicing networking, something you won’t be able to get away from later in your career.
5. Your worldview will broaden. You will meet people from different walks of life and discover the world outside your own neighbourhood.
6. You won’t know the true meaning of a deadline until you start working. But scheduling time to complete assignments, study for exams, attend campus society meetings, swing by parties and still get your laundry done will give you some inkling of what it might be like.
7. Most importantly you will learn how to become the master of your own fate, something few of us are given the opportunity to learn as we’re shuttled to and from the safety of the schoolroom.

Dean Horwitz is studying for his Masters in political communication at the University of Cape Town. He is a marketing intern for the university and a researcher for the Democracy in Africa research unit. His interests include politics, media, communications, marketing and social media. When he is not writing, reading or interacting on social media Dean enjoys hiking and watching movies and TV series.