University campuses contain the leading lights of tomorrow’s organisations and communities. Australians are pursuing higher education in record numbers, with 56% of those over 15 YO having a post-school qualification. This figure has increased by 10% in ten years. Nearly 25% of Australians hold a Bachelor Degree or higher. What we are seeing is a large section of sophisticated students on campus at educational institutions around the country. The gap between genders pursuing higher education is rapidly decreasing as well, with women closing that gap from 11% to just 4% in a decade. Tertiary education is now a must for a substantial section of Australians.
Better Education Drives a Smarter & Healthier Lifestyle
A recent study by the International Institute for Applied Systems in Analysis in Vienna has shown that it is education, largely responsible for longer lifespans, rather than wealth. Of course, in most instances wealth and educational opportunities go hand in hand, but the results of the 40-year study found a closer correlation between levels of education and longer lives. Better education drives a smarter and healthier lifestyle. This research has positive ramifications for the trend toward higher education in this nation. More money might buy you a bigger TV and more lavish home, but what you do in that home is predicated by how well you have been educated.
Education is an Expanding Force
Education is an expanding force, which is involved in straightening out crooked beliefs and attitudes in people. We may love our parents and are grateful for the upbringings they have bestowed upon us, but we do not want to repeat their narrow-minded traits in our lives, especially not in a modern world. The world is smaller, thanks to digital communication and technologies like it, there is no room for dysfunctional attitudes like racism. Bold moves are called for to combat outdated political attitudes and prejudice of any kind.
Moral Philosophy is Coming to the Fore
University campus is where Facebook started and the jury is still out on whether this social media platform has been a force for good or evil. Moral philosophy is coming to the fore in our hour of need, as we grapple with the darker side of human nature around the globe. These sophisticated students on campus are challenged with a compromised future, as we deal with greed vs climate change, and other issues of this kind on a worldwide scale. I wonder how people like Tony Abbott will be remembered, or, perhaps, he will not be remembered at all?
