Universities should require every student to take a variety of courses outside the student s field of study

The traditional mission of universities is to form harmonious individual. Recently, universities aim to accomplish one more mission – to help future graduates to be competitive in the contemporary situation of rising unemployment. For both goals the statement seems reasonable, though there are some people who argue that taking an extracurricular coursework will be a waste of time and unnecessary burden to a student. This position must be also considered. Thus, while the statement has manifold advantages, it should be applied with careful considerations.

First of all, the most helpful courses that the student can take should belong to the realm of Humanities. The liberal arts courses are the most versatile and they help to fulfill the first mission of universities, because they develop general apprehension of the world and establish critical evaluation of the life. Take as a case engineers, natural scientists, and computer scientists who will be able to see the world in its complexity, which will be helpful also for mutual understanding of shared values.

Then, the students who major in one particular field of studies and minor in absolutely different field will be better prepared for the possible change of their professional carrier in the situation of unemployment. For instance, if a student majored in chemistry and minored in languages, he or she would be able to survive with translations or as a tourist guide, so there are some practical reasons also behind the additional courses.

However, some people disagree with the idea of additional courses by the reasons already mentioned. They insist on the severe practical approach, which must limit the student by the field of his or her studies only. The proponents of this position might be parents or employers, who pay tuitions for the student and, clearly, they are not interested to spend their budget to support anything beyond its limit. Others support this point of view by the reason of an expert-oriented approach, widely spread in our contemporary civilization of the extreme specialization. Addressing the former, it is possible to say that additional courses worth of money because in result, they will get a human, and not a machine. Thus, their contribution will be double paid back. The same way, the experts can’t compete without versatility and adaptability, based on the additional courses.

All this helps us to reach a compromise and work out a balanced approach. The idea is that the junior student can take the minor, and when he or she has become the senior, the future graduates must devote themselves to their area of expertise. It gives a hope to form both the well-rounded and competitive individual and a good expert.