I went to Monash University in 1984 to do a combined B.Sc./B.E. degree majoring in Computer Science and Electrical & Computer Systems Engineering. During my first year, I went about my studies the way typical of most Malaysian. I was, after all, a product of the Malaysian education system at that point. About mid way through my second year, it struck me that the assignments for computer science seems to get a lot more complex each time. Not only that, I learned that tutors for first and second year where PhD and Masters degree students respectively. You are very much left to work out your own problem during your final year! In other words, you will be given more complex problem over time with less help/assistance. This is a very well structured system that prepare students to be ready to handle complex real world problem after graduation. I felt that each assignment gives us an opportunity to learn/practise problem solving skills and I grow/progress by me learning how to get my head around these problems.
This last point is so obvious yet it caused a paradigm shift in me. From that point on, I see a tertiary degree not where one learn to become an architect, a doctor. an engineer, a lawyer or whatever it is that you are studying to be. But a program where one learn:
- how to learn new things
- how to think
- how to solve problem
It is not that you will not learn these skills if you do not know this while doing your degree. You do. Just that I believe one would missed opportunities to purposely sharpen these skills further during that time. Why do I see these to be so important? Well, I see that we all have to solve problem everyday. Even factory operators will need to solve problems. That is what differentiate us from a machine including those with artificial intelligence!
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