Universities should require every student to take a variety of courses outside the student's field of study.Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim. In developing and supporting your position, be

“Do subjects or courses determine students’ success”? In other words, there is no comprehensive study has been carried out by experts which can validate that choice of a subject by a student determines his ultimate career. There are other aspects such as his inherent inclination, his skills and the society he is living in that shape the students’ life after college. The prompt claims that Universities should make it mandatory for students to pursue variety of courses outside their major field. In my view, I strongly agree with this argument and support it by stating that variety of courses enable them to choose from what their career goals are. The reasons supporting my opinion are presented in the following paragraphs.

First of all, are career options stable or constant? It intends to state that since the career options vary from field to field and from country to country and most importantly from time to time, therefore, it is suggested to encourage students to learn variety of courses. For instance, the period between 1st and 2nd world war witnessed the proliferation of career in nuclear engineering because of a desire of world super powers to have nuclear weapons as a deterrent. However, as time passed by, United Nations established by these countries, peace process implemented worldwide, there was a significant drop in nuclear engineering. Further, nuclear engineering was lucrative post 2nd world war since USA and Russia vied to develop maximum number of nuclear warheads. Universities in both countries offering and encouraging students to pursue nuclear engineering. However, once the non-proliferation treaty signed and implemented between them, the career path to be a nuclear scientist dwindled sharply. Therefore, students must be urged to enrol themselves in variety of courses since the career they are looking for is not stable or certain even in short run.

Secondly, are students focussed at the early age to decide what they would pursue after college? It intends to state that a career path chosen by a student or by his family may not be followed by him after college due to sudden revelation or change in interests. For instance, Dr. Raghuram Rajan enrolled in engineering due to his childhood dream to design aircraft engines, however, during his last year at engineering, he got sudden revelation about using mathematics skills in finance instead of using it in engineering which would make him more esteemed as he told to reporters during an interview and today, rest is history; he is one of the most widely known economists. Further, the famous mathematician of Indian origin, i.e., Ramanujan could have achieved laurels at much earlier had he studied other subjects in which he failed during his college days and due to which he was forced to leave his studies and look for a job of a clerk. In his biography, it is also claimed that he must have secured at least passing marks in other subjects as well so that he could go to UK to work alongside with other then esteemed mathematician. Therefore, a University should not only require students to pursue other subjects but also make them understand the benefits of studying them.

Thirdly, do subjects in one field make a student whole? In other words, as research has shown that this whole universe is complex mixture of many unrelated things, therefore, a person should study at least cover some part of it by studying as many different subjects as possible to make oneself whole. For instance, a field of economic research states that a student who has a mix of knowledge of different fields including mathematics, arts and science can be a good economists since economics is both art and science. Further, the field of architecture and civil engineering confirm the practice of different fields since an architect or designer of building must be able to imagine the structure of a building which is unique, by using arts and he must also be able to calculate the strengths of building material using the concept of civil engineering. Therefore, even if a student chooses to pursue one major field, it is required that he must have studied other related subjects in order to become whole.

Of course some would argue that by focussing only on a major field can make student determined and successful in the long run. However, the proponents of this idea must know that career interests keep on changing and the environment a student lives in also fluctuates and most importantly there is not a single course which is independent of the study of other subjects, be it physical science which consists of mathematics, physics and arts to imagine the structure of universe and then use physical knowledge to test it as claimed by Late Elbert Einstein. Therefore, Universities across the world must require students to pursue other fields of study as well.