Purpose of higher education is to find motivation towards excellence

I find it surprising that letter-writers, in expressing their views on the relationship between intelligence and holding a degree, while taking different positions, imply that higher education is mainly attained for the purpose of getting higher salaries.

From my personal experience, I reached a different conclusion about the purpose of getting a degree.

After working for 10 years with an engineering diploma in India, I came to Singapore in 2006 as a technologist in a wafer fab. Within a few years, I realised that I needed a degree to progress in my career — admittedly, at that time, principally for higher pay.

While I was pursuing a part-time bachelor’s degree in technology at a local university from 2009, my motivations started shifting.

Being exposed to an intellectually stimulating environment that celebrated academic excellence, I grew unsatisfied with merely passing a subject for the sake of attaining a degree.

I started joining study groups that strived to master concepts to achieve excellence in a subject matter. This had a significant positive impact on my grades, but more importantly, it instilled curiosity and a problem-solving mindset in me.

I found a connection between what I studied for an engineering degree and real-world challenges.

The satisfaction from finding meaning in the things one does is key to internal motivation towards excellence. I believe that is the purpose of going for higher education. A higher salary is just a by-product.