This is an important question, but this debate is based on a faulty assumption that the only purpose of college is to develop intelligence. Missing from the debate are the unique human qualities that really do define us, such as curiosity, the search for meaning, and inner growth. These aren’t extracurriculars—they’re a core part of what true education is about.
The word “education” descends from the Latin educare—to nourish, to bring out. Education, at its root, was never only about filling a mind with information. It was about drawing out and nourishing all the unique qualities that define us.
Some see AI as a threat to be managed. I would counter that it is precipitating a pivotal opportunity to reinvent higher education and embrace the broader scope it once had.
Even though curiosity is one of our defining qualities—and one that AI can’t replicate—it’s an aptitude that grows the more we use it. The point isn’t just in seeking answers, but in seeking growth and expansion. Curiosity is the precursor to both questions and the wisdom that follows.
In the age of AI, the capacity not just to ask questions but to want to ask questions is a core skill to teach. So how could a university do that? One way: make question-asking, instead of answer-giving, the explicit goal of a course. It could be a first-year seminar built entirely around inquiry. The students could be graded on the quality of the questions they learn to pose—not the answers.
Meaning and purpose
To help students find the meaning and purpose they’re seeking as they come into university life, it is essential that schools support students' desire to define meaning.
One way to do this is to build meaning and purpose into the vocational core. In a study by Stanford’s William Damon, he found that over half of the students were in college to find purpose, not just to be trained to make a living. And yet he also found that most colleges weren’t providing resources to help students find their purpose. So career advising could be reframed around purpose and calling—not just credentials and salary. Damon recommends hands-on learning, often through volunteering that connects students’ passions to the real world, and providing mentors or “spark coaches.”
Inner growth
To do this, universities could add a “capstone of the self” alongside a thesis. In addition to a traditional capstone project, schools should give seniors a chance to produce a reflective synthesis of who they’ve become and who they want to be—an examined-life portfolio. It recognizes inner development as an essential outcome of a degree and gives students the opportunity to make sense of their years of growth and to have more clarity about what really matters.
Reclaiming the mission of the university isn’t about going back to the past—it’s about connecting to what’s always been there in order to go forward. To educate has always been about nourishing the whole person, not just the intellect.
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