I got a good degree and can't remember any of it!

Sitting here nosing into my fellow noders home nodes and seeing that many of them are at some college of higher eduction or another I began to hark back to my own Uni days (1993-1996) and marvel at the times I had.

After a couple of minutes however I started to realise that although I have vivid memories of parties, fucking, unwise mixtures of alcohol, daytime TV, Super Mario Kart (still, in my opinion yet to be surpassed for sheer competitive gameplay qualities) etc etc I have very little actual residual knowledge of my chosen subject. (For anyone interested I graduated with honours from the relatively prestigious University of Exeter in Economic History where I somehow received the departmental award for excellence two years running).

I know that James Watt invented the steam engine (is that right?) and a few meaningless pieces of junk knowledge about Marx and the odd hazy recollection of France's economic status between 1919-1939 but precious little else.

In fact, if it hadn't been for my outstanding cramming qualities I don't think I would have graduated at all.

All this makes me wonder why I bothered going to University at all. Then I remember the parties, fucking, unwise mixtures of alcohol, daytime TV and Super Mario Kart and it all becomes clear again.

Well, the main purpose of university education is not for the student to memorize things, but for the teachers to have enough students who write theses that agree with whatever theories the teachers have come up with.

It is still quite useful for the student. While you may have memorized a lot of useless facts which you did well to forget, you also learned how to think for yourself once you're out of the academia.

And learning that is priceless.