Saturday, January 21, 2012

The Value of an Agricultural Degree


There has been much discussion the past few days about the value and worth of a degree in agriculture.  A popular website ran a piece in its Education section detailing a listing of “useless college degrees.”  Many of our alumni, faculty, staff and students responded with their views on the true worth of a degree in agriculture.  We applaud the agriculture community for coming to the defense of the sector.

Agriculture careers make up one in four jobs in the United States.  As many know, the agriculture industry is as widely diverse as the people in this country.  Nearly every aspect of daily life has a connection to agriculture and it is one of the career tracks where there is always opportunity to adapt.  Reports  like the “Employment Opportunities for College Graduates in Food, Renewable Energy, and the Environment, United States, 2010-2015” (http://www.ag.purdue.edu/usda/employment/pages/default.aspx), put out by the United States Department of Agriculture, paint a different picture than the article in question did yesterday.  At the UK College of Agriculture, 90 percent of our graduates reported they had a full time job, part-time job or were pursuing an advanced degree in the 2010-2011 exit survey.

The University of Kentucky College of Agriculture supports students going to college and earning their degree, whether that be in agriculture, human environmental sciences, or any program in the country.  There has never been a better time for students to step up to the challenges of an increasing world population, economic recovery, or simply to make a difference in their community than now.  Agriculture needs students who can rise to these challenges and commit to making a difference.  Colleges of agriculture around the country are the perfect places for young minds and young leaders to enroll and begin making the difference today.  The jobs are there, as are the opportunities. 

Dr. Scott Smith                                                          Jason Headrick
Dean                                                                          Director of Student Relations
University of Kentucky                                               University of Kentucky
College of Agriculture                                                College of Agriculture

8 comments:

  1. Excellent comeback for the disturbing and false statements and views of the website in question. Great job!!

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  2. I think this blog post is wonderful...kudos to the author!! I read yesterday's article with the "top ten" posted and found it to be, well, infuriating honestly. It really made me wonder where they got their info/statistics. At any rate, I really enjoyed this statement in response to that unfounded article made by UK ....GO CATS!!!!!

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  3. As a soon to be College of Ag graduate, I was personally upset to see such an article in the news. I feel that my degree in Agricultural Economics is very important to the future of agriculture and to our nation. If I have learned anything in college, it is that ag is not just about "cows, sows and plows." While those aspects are equally important, so many other functions of agriculture affect our lives on a daily basis. I hope that others see this and understand the true quality and usefulness of an agriculture degree.

    Jennifer Cox
    Agricultural Economics, Senior

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  4. Thanks for posting! As a Food Science, Junior in the College of Agriculture I am so blessed and thankful for everything the College of Agriculture and an agriculture degree has provided me including internships and real world experiences. Sometimes I feel like people are so far removed from the understanding of agriculture they forget what it is all about. Without Food Scientists there would be no food on the shelves when you walk in the grocery store. You would simply have the bare essentials like you were living 100 years ago. Thanks to an Ag degree in food science we can now walk into a store and buy eleaborate products that are ready in 90 seconds and tasty potato chips. Take those products off the shelves and they might rethink the quality and usefulness of a degree in agriculture.

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  5. I wonder if having a master's degree in food science would have required the students to have eaten a lot?

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  6. Exciting publish, I didn't know that all those organizations were established by Stanford graduates. I am amazed to see only one individual with a level in company on the record. GSB needs to quit slacking and discovered more big organizations to keep up with the other divisions.degree value

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