I found myself grappling with the age-old debate about university education versus work experience when a friend, who could not complete a political science degree with an Australian university (no relation to the recent race attacks there), met me over dinner. The issue was financial, with a hoped-for grant not coming through and his finances having stretched real thin. Since this was a post-graduate program and not PhD, he had no option but to discontinue. He is now looking for work, and I found myself ill-informed to advise him on where he should try.

His dilemma reminded me of what the former book editor of an American newspaper once said to me. He had been to university but harboured very poor views on it. Most of his real eduction had come from the work he did — and not just learning the details of the job. He found that just to keep up with the demands of his job, he became an auto-didact, educating himself all that he needed to succeed as an arts journalist. That, and not college, was the most glorious phase of his life, as the security of a job and the absence of  hierarchical pedagogy were a blooming push for freedom.

While university can and does give you the centre around which to draw your life, many people find that their work is at great odds to what they have learnt in school, and by the end of the first decade of passing out, they have forgotten most of what seemed terribly important back then. In my case, for instance, I can probably help you with the construction of a very basic electrical circuit, which is not bad, considering I have no need for such knowledge in my current job as editor/writer. Even my friends who continued with engineering jobs have moved to writing code, which was learnt on the job and not at engineering school. And no, we did not learn Java at school. It was handed down during those six furious months of training at TCS, IBM, Infosys etc.

To succeed on the job requires us to so completely remap our college-addled brain that we are hard-pressed to recognise our former selves one year into the job. The backslapping has given way to a quiet self-awareness. Financial concerns have replaced more mundane ones. And conflicts suddenly seem more grave than the past taught us.

So why go to university then? Well, networking, for one. Being a Stephanian is a badge for life and will open doors for you long after you have forgotten the college and what it taught you. That’s true also for the IITs, IIMs, AIIMS and others. Plus the financial benefits. You are suddenly in another terrain.

But there are thousands of smart young men and women, like my Australia-returned friend, who have not gone to one of these five-star institutes, yet are devoted to improving their lot by some self-learning on the job. The question is, does the system give them a chance to make a decent living?