With AI, tech, are university degrees still important?

By Majd Othman

KUWAIT: With the advent of artificial intelligence, many reports expect several careers to be affected by this new technology. As online search engines link with AI bots to provide smart results, reports showed that not only the publishing, media and photo/videography sectors will be affected by AI, but the medical field may also be affected with smart diagnoses.

As a result of these new developments, and with the presence of social media as an income source, Kuwait Times asked people about their opinion whether university degrees are still as important as in the past to forge a good career path and secure a good income. Business owner Hamad, a citizen, said he has a university degree in interior design, but after his graduation, the saturated market affected him negatively amid fierce competition between degree holders.

“I spent years exerting efforts at the university to graduate from a field that I always dreamt to make a career out of, but due to a lack of good opportunities, I wish I hadn’t wasted my time and money at university. I should have taken specialized courses that teach me the basic information, and I would gain experience through practicing,” he said.

Salam Husni, an expat, disagreed that university degrees are not important. “Despite the world having progressed in a lot of fields, whether technologies, Internet or AI, there are still too many places in the world struggling to have a good Internet connection or developed technologies, and they need human experts. The university degree is still the only source for students to practice in many different fields, such as engineering and medicine,” she stressed. Husni added this is an opportunity to benefit and combine between latest developments and knowledge gained at universities.

Matoog Hamed, an expat, said he did not complete his studies, and regrets this, because he struggled in the beginning of his career to find jobs that paid well. “In most countries, they still evaluate employees for having a degree more than experience. When they start to evaluate the employee based on experience, then the importance of having a degree will lessen,” he pointed out.

Sanaa Jamil, a citizen, said the new generation is not as interested in having a university degree. “The world has changed its ways in identifying the job — some careers need a specific personality more than experience, such as in sales and marketing, so a university degree is not mandatory for these jobs,” she said.

“Currently, social media and blogging have mostly attracted the new generation. Some don’t have a degree, while others have dropped out as social media brings more income for them. The new generation thinks social media will last forever as a source of income, so they ignore the university degree,” she said. “A good example of the importance of a university degree can be seen when a famous blogger took advantage of her medical degree and opened a clinic that generates more money than what she is earning through social media. The degree is a safety net,” Jamil added.

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