Academic knowledge has no application when it comes to real life.

 

A recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education shows how academics go through their education learning the intricacies of the subject they teach. Still, it seems that once they receive their Ph.D., many people quickly discover that all this knowledge has no application in the real world and instead of helping the society, it only makes its members more alienated from it.

This is probably one of the biggest problems scholars face today, and it has roots in many different areas, but we can single out two primary ones:

The first problem that academics typically deal with is the lack of social relevance of their knowledge. When people go to graduate school, they are very enthusiastic about studying, likely because it truly interests them. However, once they receive their degree and look for a job outside the academy, they discover that very few companies are keen on hiring people who have no experience dealing with real-life problems.

When this happens, people are forced to either abandon their acquired profession or become researchers at universities where there is a great demand for their type of expertise. However, this is a very difficult choice because it requires people to look at themselves from the outside and realize that they have been living in a bubble where everyone around them believes as strongly as they do in what they study. This can be quite disturbing because one's faith has been shattered, and all the work invested in this field has gone to waste because it seems that people can't use academic knowledge in their daily lives.

As for the second problem is closely related to the first one and refers to how academia treats its scholars once they become professors. Many academics complain about what goes on behind closed doors at universities, but very few of them are brave enough to go public with their criticism. A major reason for this is that the academic community keeps its members in line through a cartel of mutual admiration and support. Denouncing your colleagues would likely lead to exclusion from circles you need to be part of to get ahead.

This creates an environment that discourages many people who might speak out and have their work published, but it also encourages ad hominem attacks on those writers who manage to do so. This is a serious problem because, as a result, the public is left with little information about what goes on in universities. Academic knowledge remains devalued despite all efforts made by academics to prove otherwise.

The above article compiles the thoughts of several academics who argue that academia is in crisis these days and that universities need to do something about it. It appears that this problem exists for two reasons:

There are too many people in academia who don't think about society's interests but rather cater to their interests. Two, academic knowledge is not likely to be applied in real-world, because of a cartel-like structure that is not conducive to sharing information.

Although the article does not offer any solutions to this problem, it provides many examples from which we can suggest how universities might solve these issues.

 

Author Bio:

Oliver Smith is a content writer at Essays UK who has written hundreds of articles to assist students’ academic life. He is managing a growing team of writers who love to help students with their academics. As for his hobbies, he likes to read articles, newspapers, and magazines to keep himself updated.