This is something that bothers me more and more about students and university education: why does everyone believe it must be aligned with the demands of the economy? Do we really have to subordinate knowledge and scientific discourse to monetary interests? Is scientific work and education—which is supposed to be the purpose of universities—really worth so little?
I believe that university education should remain free from the constraints that the economy wants to impose on everything. Because if that happens, we'll quickly disappear from the top of the world stage.
Economic interests are short-term, science is long-term. Please continue to invest in the long-term; in the end, we all benefit far more from it than from short-term profits that go straight into the pockets of shareholders and investors anyway.
And to the students: yes, future work is important. Of course, especially in today's situation, you have to plan ahead for what you want to do professionally. But your studies should still be driven more by enthusiasm for a subject than by the question of whether it makes economic sense. Anything else would be a real shame. We already have far too many business administration students...
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