I had an opportunity to take part in a television talk show on Sunday - the chief guest being a prominent banker in Asia. However, the show was not about economics and finance.

With distinguished professors of English and others sitting in the audience, we started by harking back to the days when the national college entrance examination was restored after a decade of suspension.

There was a lot of nostalgia about those days, 30 years ago. The students of the 77-78 classes - whether enrolled in undergraduate or graduate programs - were thankful for the merit-based tests that enabled them to realize their almost lost dreams and fulfill their thirst for knowledge.

Meanwhile, the teachers shared fond memories of their students - their passion, honesty and determination for knowledge - characteristics rare in today's youngsters.

From the talks, I detected a divide between the elderly and the young over the purpose of college education. The elderly emphasized how college education could help broaden students' knowledge, shape their characters and enhance their qualities. They lamented the fact that students today can only sit in the classroom for a full two years of serious studies.

But the young seemed to be more concerned about what colleges have to offer to enable them get good jobs. One complained that today's colleges have not equipped students with enough specific skills to excel in the competitive job market.

While I am sympathetic with the youngsters, I do agree with the professors that college education should contribute to the making of a fine person or a talent, above anything else.

College education should help students lay a good foundation so that they will be able to come up with questions, search for answers and master and improve the necessary skills on their own later in their careers. They must acquire the abilities in college to adapt themselves to different environments independently so that wherever they go after graduation they will perform to their best.

It is a pity, however, that in the past 30 years no matter how much education has advanced, it sometimes steers away from lofty goals. While some high school students do not have time to prepare for independent studies in colleges, colleges have not reorganized their programs in such a flexible way for the early encouragement of undergraduates to freely roam in a more broad-based, cross-disciplinary knowledge sphere, especially relating to liberal arts and sciences.

Today's youngsters are trained to be reliant first on their parents, and then their teachers, so much so that despite there being numerous programs available in colleges, students still complain about the deficiencies in skill training.

What is worse is that quite a number of companies, institutions and other employers often look for specific skills in the resumes, overlooking the overall quality of potential candidates.

If a banker graduated with a master's degree in English literature and Shakespearean studies, could he still have got a job in the finance sector today? I doubt it.

It was a pity that no one thought of asking the banker during the show the secret of how he turned himself from a Shakespearean scholar into a financial administrator and later a financier and a banker.

He said opportunities come only to those who are prepared. Hopefully, current college education will reform itself to make every student as prepared as the banker.

E-mail: lixing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 07/12/2007 page10)