Educators have been long divided over whether the main function of universities is to help students lay a broader knowledge foundation or to help them explore deeply in one area. As for me, extensive study will bring students more benefits in terms of future career choice and job performance and thus should be highly recommended.

The first reason why a wide knowledge basis is of paramount importance lies in the significant role it plays in students’ career choice. Personal experience informs me that university students tend to have little knowledge of what the real world is like and what people in each profession will do. Therefore, basically, they are not fully aware of where their genuine interest and aptitude lies. At this case, if they are forced to make a choice and specialize in one narrow field, without being given the opportunity to get in touch with other things that they may find more enjoyable and more suitable for them, they may finally end up in a profession that does not fascinate them and even bores them, which will do a great disservice to either the excellence in their careers or their their personal happiness. Therefore, ti would be best for universities to make students exposed to wide range of fields by requiring them to take classes in various subjects. Only through this way can students better identify their own social niche and make an informed choice about future career.

Another reason for my inclination is, for most professions, it is necessary for students to develop their versatility in order to better understand their majors and to better perform their future careers. Today’s world is characterizes by the fine division among labors, all of which are interdependent and interrelated. In that sense, to secure preeminence in any specialized area requires expertise in others. Considering this, students will be better served if gaining knowledge in a large scope of subjects. For example, students majoring in economics have to learn something about mathematics so that they can better build up models to describe the economy and make predictions about the economic trend in the next few months. Students in literature have to know the history backgrounds of the literary works they are studying so that they can better understand the contents and motives of the works. And as so far students in journalism, it is imperative today to also learn some sociology, economics and international politics in order to write reports that give deeper and more profound insights about the events that are going on. Simply out, specialization in only one subject is not enough to enable students to give excellent performance in the job.

Therefore, I believe that the students need extensive courses to make a better choice or simply to make them a better competition in the future.