Are Plain Bachelor’s Degrees Fading in Value? A New Era of Specialised Education

In the modern job landscape, selecting a career pathway has become extremely important for students. Traditionally, earning a bachelor's degree in B.A.,B.Sc., and B.Com were sufficient to land a stable job and build a lifelong career, but not anymore. Today, professional degrees like B.Tech For Engineering And MBBS For Medicine are viewed as more valuable and utilitarian. Are we losing value in bachelor degrees as it stands today? Let’s explore further.

The job market today is driven by skills, experience, and industry demand. Employers are not just looking for degrees, but for people who can solve problems, innovate, and bring specific expertise to the table. This is where B.Tech and Medical degrees seem to have an edge. These courses are designed with a professional approach, offering hands-on training, internships, and direct industry exposure. In contrast, traditional bachelor’s degrees often follow a theoretical approach, with less emphasis on practical application. This makes it harder for students from general streams to compete in a skill-based job market unless they pursue additional courses or higher studies.

B.Tech and MBBS are industry-oriented from the very beginning. Engineering students learn how to build, design, and innovate with real-world applications. Medical students are trained to diagnose, treat, and save lives. These degrees prepare students for specific careers. On the other hand, a general B.A. or B.Sc. may not directly lead to a specific job unless the student specializes further through postgraduate studies or competitive exams. This often leads to confusion and delay in entering the workforce.

Another reason plain bachelor’s degrees seem to be losing value is the lack of job opportunities immediately after graduation. Many students find that they need to pursue master’s degrees, diploma courses, or certifications just to stand out in the crowd. In contrast, a fresh engineering or medical graduate often lands a decent job or is eligible for internships and training programs with higher stipends or salaries.

This doesn’t mean that plain bachelor’s degrees are useless. In fact, many successful people come from arts, commerce, and science backgrounds. These degrees still offer a strong foundation in critical thinking, communication, and research—skills that are highly valued across careers. Also, in the digital age, students from any background can learn new skills online—like content writing, data analysis, graphic designing, or coding—and build a thriving career.

So, are plain bachelor’s degrees losing their worth? In some ways, yes—especially if the goal is to jump straight into a high-paying job. But with the right attitude, additional skills, and a willingness to grow, students from any stream can shine just as brightly. The key is not just the degree you hold, but how you use it to create opportunities. Whether you're an engineer, a doctor, or a literature graduate, your success depends more on your passion, persistence, and continuous learning than on your degree title alone. In the end, it’s not the degree that defines your future—it’s you!

 

[Almana]

I agree, simple bachelor’s degrees—B.A., B.Sc., B.Com—do hold value. They foster core competencies like critical thinking, communication, and research, which remain essential in any career.
However, I’d argue that their declining relevance in today’s job market is less about the degrees themselves and more about how they are being delivered and supported in our current academic landscape.
One of the main reasons these degrees seem to be “fading” is that very few institutions actively promote or innovate within them anymore. Especially in public universities, which educate the vast majority of students, the quality of instruction, curriculum modernization, and practical exposure has dipped significantly. Courses often remain outdated, faculty are overburdened, and there is little institutional push to connect classroom learning with real-world applications.
So while professional degrees like B.Tech or MBBS appear more “valuable,” much of that comes from systemic support and structural alignment with industry, not because plain bachelor’s degrees lack potential. If the same level of funding, internships, and curriculum evolution were applied to general degrees, they could be just as career-oriented and transformative.

In short, the answer to whether plain bachelor’s degrees are fading in value is yes—but not because they’re inherently weak. The real issue is the institutional neglect and the absence of a clear academic or professional trajectory for students pursuing them. With better vision and reform, they can reclaim their place as foundational pillars of an adaptable and skilled workforce.

 

[Faman]

Let's be completely honest about the current state of university degrees: for many, a standard Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) or Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) isn't just a less direct route to a job; it's often a three-year delay, a very expensive social event that frequently ends with graduates struggling to find good work or needing to quickly learn new skills that could have been picked up faster and cheaper elsewhere. We often praise these degrees for teaching "critical thinking" and "communication skills," but how many employers truly care more about a philosophy graduate's deep understanding of old ideas than a coding school graduate's ability to build a working app? The plain truth is that, while a few top universities might genuinely teach these high-level thinking skills in a way that helps graduates get jobs, for most universities, these are just fancy words covering up courses that don't prepare students for the real world. The job market isn't asking for more people who can think broadly; it's desperately looking for people who can actually do things, and traditional general degrees are often failing to provide that basic need.

And let's not pretend that specialized degrees like a Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) or even a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) are guaranteed paths to success anymore. The market for engineers is now crowded; countless B.Tech graduates from less famous schools face tough competition, low starting pay, and often end up in jobs completely unrelated to their "specialized" training, or worse, without any job at all. The idea of a clear career path now depends heavily on the quality of the university and how relevant the specific specialization is to today's jobs. As for medicine, the journey is incredibly long, hard, and expensive, often leading to a profession with strict rules, limited freedom, and a huge emotional cost. These specialized fields, while offering a clearer starting point, are not safe from changes in the market, new technologies (like artificial intelligence helping with medical diagnoses!), or the simple rules of supply and demand. Their perceived "value" is often boosted by how society views them and by old traditions, rather than being a sure promise of a successful and well-paying career for everyone who graduates.
The uncomfortable truth is that the whole idea of a degree being the main proof of someone's value is quickly becoming old-fashioned. We are now in a time where actual skills, examples of past work (portfolios), and real-world experience—often gained through online courses, short training programs (boot camps), apprenticeships, or learning on your own—are becoming more important than traditional university certificates. Whether it's for a government job like an IBPS Agricultural Field Officer (AFO) that needs specific farming knowledge, or a tech company looking for a data analyst, the most important thing is whether someone can actually do the job. When we apply this idea to the government sector, those "any graduate" jobs are often the last places where the degree acts simply as a filter, deciding who gets in rather than truly showing someone's specific abilities. For today's economy, formal education is increasingly just one choice among many, and it's not always the quickest or most effective way to get ahead. The people who succeed most, as you suggested, are those who constantly focus on learning new skills and improving themselves, no matter what their university paper says. The future belongs not to those with the "right" degree, but to those with the right, always-improving, set of skills.