Education is increasing awareness and ensuring you learn things like collaboration, planning, research and analyzing skills. So it is entirely dependent on the person as what experiences they have in their life to come to a decision whether they need education at all.

it used to be "it's not what you know, it's who you know" and it still is very much like that indie devs with no schooling can be just as successful, if they have the right idea and/or team- or a solid leader to partner with

Wow! there's a lot being said here.. and I haven't gone through the earlier replies. But - my view is a big NO! I have been actively pushing my cousins and younger folks in neighbourhood to take an academic break or push their Graduate studies by a year or two - instead work in a startup or learn new skills and build shit. Academia is fast losing relevance in our today and tomorrow.

I thought that it wasn't that necessary because I got Bachelor's in Radio Engineering and Master's in PM / Business. But then my PM degree has helped me numerous times - to launch my business, and drive project-based initiatives in every company I worked for. Also, having a master's degree has helped me immigrate to Canada, because academic degree do count - at they weight a lot - in official evaluations of your 'human capital' worth. Then, Knowledge from my Tech Degree has helped me nail learning programming in just 6 months. How? Because I've studied the hardware - everything about Electronics, Semi-conductors and Transistor logic. We used to design (on paper) the Analog-Digital and Digital-Analog convertors, and Transistor logic devices, and Transistor storage devices. Which all is Computer Science, but even on the deeper level then taught in Comp Science classes (at least 90% of Comp Science grads didn't know what I knew about the physical layer). Not to mention CISCO standard courses for Computer Networking. It all helped me get credibility for all of the job interviews, my current employer is also a PhD in Radio Engineering, so he even asked me some of Radio 101 questions during the interview - and he was impressed that I remember than stuff 7 years after graduation. That was a sign for him of my overall intellectual development, and academic degrees are a sign of quality. Yeah, there are many ways to get these degrees without learning anything, but it's the best mean for credibility that we have. And maybe elite professional certifications can count, too, like Financial (CPA, CFA, FRM), PM (PMP), CISCO, Microsoft etc. But I would learn any of that if it wasn't for the University, and to be honest, I did like 40% of my potential in school because I loved missing classes, hanging out with friends instead of learning and was overall very lazy (smart, but lazy) student. To sum up, higher education can be dodged, but if you're not from a developer country - you really want to consider getting the highest degree possible in order to increase your Mobility on the International Market.

Depends on what you want to do with your life. If you want to be a doctor, hell yes it's necessary! As far as IT goes, however, I think no educational institution is adaptive enough to be able to catch up with the tempo things are changing here.

It's not necessary, it totally depends upon the person doing it. This is skill based economy so more weightage should be toward how much you know rather thank how much you have studied.

As someone who's been a long-time advocate for self-education but decided to go back to university at age 28, I think the answer is quite nuanced. Some basics need to be covered: good communication, project management, learning how to learn, etc. Which, ironically, are often not covered that well in traditional higher education, but are still touched upon through group projects and such. Once the basics are covered, there are many kinds of roles where you'll learn much better on your own and on the job than you would by going to university. This is especially true of fast-changing areas like web development and online marketing. I think anyone who's motivated can do these jobs very well by using a combination of online courses and having a good manager that can provide mentorship. But there are some kinds of jobs where you still do need formal tutoring and access to specific resources through higher education. That includes any kind of job that relates to people's health and safety, such as medical staff, but also jobs where you need to be trained with specialist equipment that you may not have available at home. That's why I went back to school to study neuroscience – no way I could afford an MRI scanner and put it in my living room! So, it depends on the kind of role you're looking at. In many cases, higher education is not only unnecessary, but is a bad choice when you consider the opportunity costs.

We are definitely in a skill based economy, so a degree makes sense only for a few particular professions like law, medicine etc. So by higher education if you mean degree then they are not as essential as before. But definitely upskilling has to be given very high priority.

Education is and education will always be necessary throughout. All the guys who complain about education are those who've achieved significant milestones in their life through education. Try to read people who've become rich and famous without education and somewhere they would have mentioned "I wish I would have studied."

If we are talking about higher education as in going to college, then the necessity is based on persona - people who do it because of their passion for learning - people who do it for fulfilling a criteria If it's not about going to college, then there are tons and tons of people who learn things which matter their progress (both in professionally and personally).

Necessary, I'd say no, but still very useful for those who choose to do it. For those who can get experience without it, they usually will be fine in their careers, especially in the tech space where skills and experience are more important.

It depends on the profession/career. If you want to be a medical doctor, it would be suitable to have a formal education (especially to have a licence). 😄 On the other hand, I know many people (programmers, marketers etc.) who don't have higher education and are very good at their mission. Many people earn their education by practising, reading books, and connecting with other people in the professional area. Higher education can help us make connections that can be valuable in the future. It is an investment in our relationships.

Higher education is crucial these days. It is the time in which I develop my critical thinking skills and broaden my horizons.

Higher education is an essential and helpful tool in the modern world. It gives you a wide range of opportunities, but it also has disadvantages.

From speaking about the viewpoint of technical knowledge, it may not be necessary to learn specific courses that may not be useful in work practices. However, some of the skills can be applied to the profession directly, depending on your job. I think the most important thing about higher education is that it teaches you how to think.

In my opinion books are the best education of all and can replace most costly higher education courses. The ones you pick out of genuine intellectual interest are the best

Important for friends, connections, opportunities, and life experiences you wouldn't otherwise encounter. As far as hard skills, it's very specific to your major. Some yes, some not at all.

I think there's a great need for vocational (job specific) training. If you go to college you gain knowledge, theory and critical thinking skills. Vocation training provides a bit of that, but instead focuses on practical, actionable skill acquisition which can get you a job in a few months. And often times these jobs pay more than traditional careers you might get if you did complete college. Excluding of course things like medicine, law, aerospace engineering, etc :)

I think that in some careers, especially business-related, higher education as it is known today will not last long. But higher education still has a key role in our society and there are careers where it will always be there, it will iterate, but it will be there. Careers related to science, medicine, etc You don´t want self-made doctor, don't you? Like it always happens nothing is white or black.

In the past, I have thought that higher education was necessary in order to be successful in life. I think that education is necessary for a person to learn how to work and live in a society