Ahead of World Thinking Day 2021, which is being celebrated on 22 February 2021, Newspoint reached out to Prof. Joe Friggieri, playwright, poet, and philosopher, who thinks with his pen, much in the same way a concert pianist thinks with their fingers and a painter with their brush.
He answers an age-old question:
Q. Does a university change the way you think?
A. Over the years, as access to education in Malta became more democratic, knowledge in various fields spread rapidly among those sections of the population who were previously denied the opportunity to develop their abilities through learning. Just compare the number of students enjoying the benefits of tertiary education today to what the situation was like sixty years ago. Think of the wide range of degree programmes now available at all levels in so many faculties as opposed to the limited number of courses that were offered then.
Knowledge produces deep and lasting effects on those who have it. It is never the mere acquisition of information: it shifts you as a person. A holistic university education fosters critical thinking, which is indispensable to innovative work in any field whatsoever. It enables you to change the way you look at things, to shed your prejudices in favour of an objective assessment of ideas and events, to appreciate the value of other disciplines and areas of study. It offers you the opportunity to engage in healthy debate with people whose views are radically different from your own. It enables you to imagine alternative and better ways of making individuals and society flourish. For all these reasons, the value of a holistic university education cannot be measured in monetary terms.