английский / Миральда Ивановна / 4. Higher Education necessity or entity

Within the broad system of higher education the universities also have special teaching functions. Their basic purpose is to give a first-class education in theories and principles to enable their students to reach a high standard of crea-tiveness, criticism and flexibility. Certainly, they do have to teach how to acquire, increase and employ knowledge. The essential emphasis in university education is on the cultivation of the minds of those with whom lies the heaviest responsibility for creating die future.

Universities do train for the professions and teach special skills. They turn ' out doctors, engineers and lawyers, chemists, physicists and economists. But the majority of their graduates are not trained for specific jobs. Even in cases such as those cited, the education is not narrowly vocational. Degree students are educated in principles as well as practice so that, as knowledge grows and techniques change, they can adapt themselves and keep up-to-date and efficient.

It might possibly be argued, then, that it does not matter what universities teach - physics or geography, sociology or English - so long as they provide intellectual training.