Honestly, why are we at UBC?
BORN a Chinese-Canadian family, I grew up believing that a university education is a necessity to succeed in life, but is that really true?
James Bradshaw, Globe and Mail, states that a university education adds $1 million in earnings over an individual’s lifetime. However, he also says that “almost one in five Canadians with bachelor degrees end up earning less than half the country’s median income – giving us a higher proportion of poor grads than any other OECD country.” So that not only begs the question of how much our degree is worth, but what exactly has driven us to aspire, stress, and pay buckets of cash to attend a university, when a fifth of us will earn less than the country’s median income?
For many, the answer is money. However, faster and larger amounts of money can come from studying at most technical institutes, where students can graduate faster with little to no tuition debt.
Therefore, keeping in mind that these are four nonrefundable years, is this really what you want?
Article: University education no guarantee of earnings success
JAMES BRADSHAW
Globe and Mail Update
Published