How to ensure a university degree has lifelong value as world of work rapidly evolves: David Forrest

For me, this begins with understanding what a university education is there to do.

Studying a subject in depth gives students specialist knowledge, but it also helps them understand why things work as they do, question explanations that don’t stand up to scrutiny and make sense of unfamiliar problems.

These abilities matter throughout a career, particularly as the demands of work change and graduates encounter situations they could not have anticipated when they first enrolled.

Universities need to give students opportunities to put their learning into practice.

Work-related learning, placements and meaningful partnerships with employers can help them test their ideas, apply their knowledge and understand how their studies relate to the challenges they will face beyond university.

At the University of Sheffield, we are embedding employability and work-related learning across all our taught degree programmes.

We believe students should have the chance to realise the real-world value of their academic knowledge and skills, consider where their studies might take them and develop the confidence to pursue those possibilities.

For some, that may mean a placement in an established organisation; for others, it might involve working on a live project or an employer challenge, exploring an unfamiliar industry or developing an idea of their own.

What matters is how these experiences sit alongside a student’s academic development.

A placement should deepen a student’s understanding of their discipline, give them new questions to bring back to their studies and help them recognise the uses and limitations of what they know.

Employers, in turn, benefit from graduates who bring sound judgement, a willingness to learn and the subject knowledge they have gained at university.

This relationship between education and employment is becoming more important as careers change and the skills required in industries evolve.

Few of us can predict precisely what the jobs market will look like in five, 10 or 20 years.

We can, however, help students develop the intellectual independence, adaptability and confidence to keep learning, respond to new circumstances and find their way through unfamiliar challenges.

We must also remember that students arrive at university with different experiences, ambitions and levels of familiarity with the professional world.

It is crucial that we provide a universal baseline of work-related learning that creates opportunities for all students, regardless of background.

In my own teaching, I have seen students’ confidence soar when they have the opportunity to apply their academic learning: to take their thinking out of libraries and lecture theatres and into communities.

I have seen first-hand how these experiences can unlock new aspirations and opportunities, setting students on the path to meaningful, productive and fulfilling careers and lives.

Universities should be willing to demonstrate the contribution their degrees make to graduates’ lives.

While employment outcomes are an important part of that picture, the full value of a degree emerges over time. Graduates are lifelong learners. They carry knowledge with them, and their curiosity, critical thinking and creativity help them contribute to their communities, professions and society.

Our responsibility is to provide students with the strongest possible foundations to build their futures with confidence.

By bringing world-leading academic research and teaching together with opportunities to apply it, we can help graduates leave university ready to begin their careers and empowered to keep growing long after they have taken their first steps into work.

David Forrest is Deputy Vice President for Education at The University of Sheffield