May someone without any degree be more learned than somebody with it ?

Question

May someone without any degree be more learned than somebody with it ?

Answer 1

Everyone and everything around you is your teacher.

Answer 2

How we measure intelligence is a big debate in psychology and the answer is there is no definitive way of measuring it.  I am studying for a history degree but my dad was far more knowledgeable than I'll ever be and he never even got an O level.  I've spent the last two years surrounded by academics but my dad is still the most knowledgeable person I've ever met.  So the answer to your question is a huge YES

Answer 3

Definitely.

Answer 4

People with degrees excel at their chosen subjects but are not necessarily cleverer than naturally intellegent people with no qualifications.

Answer 5

Absolutely, experience is the best teacher when the student is willing.  

I mean, someone had to first discover the information and teach the teachers, right?

Answer 6

Without question.  In fact, a motivated learner may actually find that the bureaucracies and arbitrary or archaic hurdles of the academic world often actually get in the way of the learning process.  For example, even just applying to graduate programs in the U.S. can cost several hundred dollars in application fees, standardized testing fees, score reporting fees, transcript fees etc.  Are the best learners always the same candidates capable of paying these fees?  On top of that, many top U.S. institutions have a downright embarrassing admissions process, ensuring the top candidates rarely even get the opportunity to begin studies within any of these programs.  And if they did, many of these academic programs are so burdened with archaic bureaucracies and politics that pursuing an education becomes secondary to filling out the right forms and jumping through the right hoops.

Having said all of that, there is an ENORMOUS benefit to the learning that takes place within a degree program.  There exists a huge, unwieldy quantity of scholarship in the world, but an academic discipline organizes huge numbers of scholars, all sifting through all of that material to identify what works, what the problems are, what isn't even worth looking at.  So that, by the time you get into class, your professor's expertise is the product of not only his/her own research and familiarity with the literature, but also the product of his/her peers, their peers, and a massive history of academic knowledge in a constant process of refinement, questioning, etc.  That, in my opinion, is the advantage of something like a degree program.  The pursuit of knowledge is a cumulative endeavor (though many universities get so wrapped up in their own internal politics they forget this), and a degree program often provides the network, the advising, to take advantage of what has already been done and to move forward, rather than reinventing the wheel.

Answer 7

Of course. There are some very bright people without degrees and some very dumb one with them.

Answer 8

Sure.  A degree is the certification issued to a student, who has successfully completed the requirements focused on a specialized discipline. An eclectic search for knowledge, and information provides a greater opportunity to gain data that they can use to integrate the various information which results in a broader concept which provides continued desire to seek more information.

Answer 9

Sure; completing a 3 year degree programme is not the same as having a lifelong commitment to learning, and gaining knowledge throughout life.