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I’m an arts grad (philosophy and literature from @Sydney_Uni) who has founded and operated five businesses and employed +100 people since I graduated.
Oh and paid buckets in company and payroll taxes along the way.
Oh and paid buckets in company and payroll taxes along the way.
I was lucky to have the freedom and support of my family to spend a long time at uni (it took me a while to finish) and to learn how to think critically and systematically.
I was a long way from what the education minister calls a “job-ready graduate”.
I was a long way from what the education minister calls a “job-ready graduate”.
While I was at uni I worked at least two jobs (sometimes four) at once to support my mounting hecs fees. These included tennis coach, video store guru, lawn mower and a garbologist.
There was never a job in mind when I was studying Plato or Husserl, Frank O’Hara or Marianne Moore. There was no clear path to the career that I have now running tech and insurance companies.
I would often (and stupidly) not go to class because I was hooked on an idea and too busy reading ahead in the courses I liked. The courses I didn’t like I would fail on purpose (again... stupidly) so I could do a different course next semester.
I was trying on ideas to see if they fit. I was meeting people (including my amazing partner) who expanded my brain. I was lucky to find _my people_ there and I savour the time I had at uni... almost every day.
University should not _only_ be about vocational training and rushing into the workforce. We have our whole lives to work and worry about cash flows and performance reviews and your next presentation at the next meeting.
I literally said this to my kids over dinner last night.
I literally said this to my kids over dinner last night.
University should _also_ be a place where ideas matter above all else. Where you are free to try them on to see if they fit. To see if they expand your brain and your empathy and switch you on to alternative ways of thinking ... and the community & economy reap the benefits.
While I started businesses, many friends from uni have gone on to be award winning artists...creating brilliant work that touches people... work that has become part of the fabric of Australian life. Some of this can be tracked back to sitting in English 103 or Epistemology 101.
Many have gone on to teaching or research within universities to grow and expand new brains.
Prioritising courses they _think_ will create “job-ready graduates”, while gutting TAFE is just another example of short sighted, short term thinking from government.
This is just part of the story about why I loved #MyArtsDegree
