I grew up in a very religious, Christian family where Sunday's activities were predetermined and strictly enforced. Like many of my generation, come Sunday, our parents faithfully saw that we were dressed in our best attire and dutifully marched to church like preprogrammed automatons. With unblinking obedience, we reenacted this liturgy-week after week, year after unrelenting year-seemingly ad infinitum. Growing into adolescence, however, my mind began to fill with questions-many of them-but one upstaged the rest: "What was the purpose of our never ending churchgoing?"
It's cohabitation. I think you start with a degree, there's a foundation that comes with a degree, but you need the skills to be relevant in the workplace,
Middlesex University Needyanand Raya arrived in London from Mauritius in 1999 to complete his master's degree. He was bearing a promise he made his father - to continue his studies "until there will be no examination beyond that to take". More than two decades later, he's now Dr Raya, having completed a doctorate in social policy at the age of 69 at Middlesex University. When asked how he felt about it? "Well, nothing much. It's just an achievement of a lifetime."
The word syllabus makes me think of "syllabus week," those opening days of a college semester, when there was still time to switch out of an arduous course. I was a picky student, I'll admit; if my would-be professor was lacking in sense of humor, or assigning too many readings, I'd just jump ship for something else. This process, repeated over and over for years, imbued the word syllabus with a degree of pessimism.
Artificial intelligence is doing more than just automating workflows in 2025: It's dismantling the very idea of education. Once seen as one-time achievements, a bachelor's degree, a professional certificate, or an annual corporate training session, are no longer guarantees of relevance in a world where knowledge ages almost as quickly as technology itself. Nearly half of talent development leaders surveyed in LinkedIn's 2025 Workplace Learning Report say they see a skills crisis, with organizations under pressure to equip employees for both present and future roles through dynamic skill-building, particularly in AI and generative AI.
West Valley College is implementing initiatives to support older adults in education through a partnership with Successful Aging Solutions and Community Consulting, providing tailored pathways for students aged 50 and older.