Originally posted on LinkedIn
Diagnosis #3️⃣ from my ~80 conversations with education experts: Traditional higher education is trying to do two things at once… and one of them isn’t working out so well.
Universities today have a dual mission: forming “thinkers” (researchers/scientists 👩🏫) and forming “doers” (professionals/entrepreneurs 👷♂️). Sounds good in theory, but in practice these two goals pull in opposite directions.
🔬 On one side, the academic structure is still oriented toward knowledge production, research, and scientific publication. Much of a university’s prestige is measured in papers, citations, and rankings — which incentivizes models that train students under a more theoretical than applied logic. This is what universities do best, but only 10% of students go down this path.
💼 On the other side, the labor market and the entrepreneurial ecosystem need graduates with practical skills — ready to solve problems at companies, nonprofits, startups, or their own ventures. But curricula haven’t evolved enough to close that gap, leaving graduates with knowledge but without the tools to apply it effectively. The other 90% of students land here.
And to be clear, both paths are missing a stronger focus on social-emotional skills (diagnosis 1️⃣).
The result:
📉 Companies complaining that graduates aren’t ready for the workforce. The current crisis: nobody wants to hire juniors! Henry Gualdron told me how after graduating in Architecture, he took a SENA construction course because in four years of school he never actually built a building. Today he teaches practical skills to dozens of architects every year. Rafael Sanabria told me how in four years of Civil Engineering, he visited a construction site exactly once. Once!!
📉 Entrepreneurs leaving university without the core skills to execute on their ideas. Real entrepreneurship is learned by doing, but there’s a set of skills that would make starting a lot easier: financial modeling, design thinking, working with technology, basic programming. Rubén Ortiz tells me how, as an Industrial Engineer interested in Finance… he was never taught Excel! Daniel Moreno tells me how he founded a company with dozens of employees while still in school (Alfred), and chose to drop out because he realized classes taught him less than doing the work — he couldn’t even get academic credit for the experience.
Models in post-secondary education like Diego Tarazona Pinzón at Campuslands, 42 Paris (France), Minerva University (US), or Kajuyalí School and Kalapa Comunidad de Aprendizaje at the K–12 level show that there are more practical ways to develop “doers” while also addressing social-emotional skills.
So why do most universities keep trying to be everything for everyone instead of defining their focus? Should we separate these paths earlier?
What do you think?