Degree in worthlessness is a piece of paper only valuable to its holder which says that the holder has spent time in an institution and has been obedient enough. The documentary below may be interesting to consider. From my experience I can only commend the documentary.

I have two degrees – one in Computer Science and Automation – a 5 years Master of Science integrated degree which I earned in my home town university and a 4 years Masters of Science integrated degree in Mathematics from the University of London (not finished yet). I was fortunate enough to graduate my computer science degree before Bulgaria became part of the European Union and thus my studies there were still in the old fashioned way. Before I studied in England I thought that western education is much better, but I was very wrong – we people always think that the neighbour’s grass is greener, don’t we. Well in fact now I almost regret for wasting four years for studding in England. Here is an example which should clarify why.

In order to appreciate the story I need to tell you a little about my background. I started developing electrical systems since I was 8-9 years old. In addition I was always around and helping my father who was a very famous engineer in the electrical engineering circles in the country. At age of 19 I graduated Electro-Technical College with major in electricity distribution and electrical machines, so I have had experience with large electrical machines (that means engines, loads and generators) including burning one or two devices by mistake. So by the age of 19 I had a lot of experience with electricity. Meanwhile I was also programming for several years, so when I entered for my computer science degree I had large experience with electricity and software, and almost none with electronics. During my second year in university I had a project to build a time relay. A simple time relay has 2 transistors, 2-3 capacitors, 3-4 resistors and a possibly trimmer. All that I had to do was to find a simple diagram and build the device. I found a diagram in a book. Then I took the parts that I needed from my father’s draws and assembled the device but it did not work. I asked my professor about the diagram and he confirmed that the diagram should work. Well it did not. It took me three very frustrating weeks assembling and disassembling the device trying to get it working. On the third week I decided to measure all elements. It turned out that one resistor which was supposed to be 3.8K Ohm was 38K Ohm – a fly literally had spit between the 3 and the 8 so it looked as 3.8 and so I had a wrong element. Replacing the resistor with correct one resolved the problem immediately. The point that I want to make is how simple my project was and how long time it took me to overtake as simple problem as using the correct element when I had no relevent experience. Note that I did not invent the diagram I only assembled a device by it. In the next 3.5 years I gained a lot of experience with designing computer systems, so much that I was invited and become head of development in a 50+ people company right as I graduated. I was also invited to teach in my university by two of my professors, which I did for a short time.

Then I came to England and started my second degree. Here I was approached by a group of 12 engineering students from the University of London to help them with their project. They were second year students but they knew much less than my colleagues and me when I was at their age. At the same time their project was so much more complex that they were absolutely unable to do anything about it - ANYTHING. They had to design a device with about 14 mixed digital and analogue integrated circuits, and also develop software for communication with the device from a PC, network communication, etc. and have all of this work together. The system had to play music as standalone device and over the internet - an absolutely impossible for them task. Recall that without experience it took me three weeks to find out that a fly had spit on one resistor. These students were so inexperienced that they have even never held a soldier, they didn’t even know how to digitalize the music that they need to play, let alone how to encode it and store it in appropriate memory, which is the simplest of a whole myriad of problems that need to be solved for this system to work.

Certainly one of the reasons why these students knew less than my colleagues and me at their age was because they were overwhelmed with so much information which they could not possibly absorb. Thus they learn it by hart for their exams and then forgot it just as quickly. Notice also the communist approach - not individual work but a commune, thus there is no personal responsibility. On the next year these 12 boys and girls graduated but I am not sure how many of them actually learned anything worthwhile for the 3 difficult years and a small fortune spend in university. The same thing applies to me too but in my course in mathematics at the same University of London. If for any reason it so happened that I learned a little something here and there it was because I could place the tons of new information on the fundamentals which I already have. For most of my colleagues however without these fundamentals most information was something to be learned by hart for the exams, and then forgotten, and so they did. Those gifted with good memory graduated with high "A’s". Those with bad memory "failed". Some people remembered some information but because it cannot be assimilated with such speeds and generally they have no fundamentals usually it is placed distorted in the minds and so its presence there is overall damaging than beneficial. So really college is an important decision and choosing a college with a program that will help you to enhance your skills is truly important.

In conclusion I agree with the documentary above that Education has become a big business with lies and deceit very much used in it. For example take a way infinity which no one has ever seen, and no one ever uses in practice and 90% +/- of mathematicians would lose their jobs – so why not maintain that particular lie and keep the jobs. If students are so eager to pay for fairy tales then let it be...

Miroslav Bonchev,
May, 2011
England