Some people think that universities should not provide so much theoretical knowledge but give more practical training throughout their courses. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this opinion?

Essay topic: 

Some people think that universities should not provide so much theoretical knowledge but give more practical training throughout their courses.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this opinion?

While some university courses such as medicine or law stipulate that students should complete a mandatory internship to be eligible to graduate, other degrees do not. Nevertheless, students can gain more from these practical trainings despite the administration burden that this system may pose on universities.

On one hand, work placements may be hard to secure in certain industries at particular periods of time. Hence, during the recent financial crisis, work placements within the banking sector may have been rare given the massive layoffs already occurring within that industry. Moreover, practical trainings are harder to assess as compared to formal examinations due to the degree of subjectivity and lack of comparisons involved. For instance, someone interning in a small family business may be evaluated by a different person using different criteria than an individual being trained in a well-recognized international company. Hence, by adopting a theoretical approach to teaching, universities are less likely to face similar administrative hassles.

However, the main purpose of universities is to smooth the integration of students into the workplace. Unfortunately, the theoretical content of some courses may be out of line with industry practices. Practical trainings may help in bridging this gap. They further enable students to apply their university-acquired knowledge into a real-world situation and build a better understanding of the subject matter. As such, these work experiences spur individuals’ interest in a particular field instead of focusing on rote learning for the purpose of passing exams. By completing an internship, people may further realize that they may not be suitable for a specific line of work and change their university course at an earlier stage instead of wasting years of study.

To conclude, I recommend that theoretical courses at tertiary education institutions should be reinforced by practical experiences within the industry. Training future employees at an earlier stage is cheaper and worthy of the administration problems involved as compared to training them later once they secure their graduate position.

flaws: Use of Discourse

flaws:
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.733 0.12
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.042 0.07

Attribute Value Ideal
Score: 7.5 out of 9
Category: Very Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 15 15
No. of Words: 326 350
No. of Characters: 1812 1500
No. of Different Words: 198 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.249 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.558 4.6
Word Length SD: 3.182 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 153 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 124 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 93 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 58 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 21.733 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 6.392 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.733 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.312 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.516 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.042 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 4 5