Higher education matters because it shapes the intellectual, civic, and moral capacity of a society. At its core, it is the difference between a community that can think, question, learn, and adapt and one that cannot.
When we speak of intellectual capacity, we are referring to a society’s ability to think critically and creatively as people move through their daily lives, work, and decision-making. Without this, innovation stalls, harmful ideas spread unchecked, and progress becomes fragile or impossible. Many of the advancements we rely on, such as medical discoveries, engineering breakthroughs, digital technologies, and public health systems, emerged through the conditions that higher education supports. Inquiry, experimentation, and sustained knowledge-building do not happen by chance.
Higher education also strengthens civic capacity. Civic responsibility grows through structures that help people understand how systems work, why institutions exist, and how individuals participate in collective life. Historically, societies with limited educational access have experienced low civic participation, limited accountability, and greater susceptibility to authoritarian rule. Broad access to education has consistently aligned with stronger democratic norms.
Higher education also shapes a society’s moral and ethical capacity. It exposes individuals to diverse perspectives, histories, and ideas, which helps communities resist polarization and avoid the fragmentation that can lead to violence, extremism, or mass manipulation. Education alone does not guarantee moral outcomes, but its absence weakens a society’s ability to understand consequences, practice empathy, and uphold shared ethical standards.
Historical Accounts of What Happens Without Education
Across history, societies that restricted or minimized education showed predictable patterns.
Medieval Europe before the Renaissance:
Widespread illiteracy limited scientific progress, civic participation, and critical inquiry. Knowledge was concentrated among elites, which made populations vulnerable to superstition, manipulation, and rigid social hierarchies.
Totalitarian regimes in the twentieth century, such as Nazi Germany and Stalinist USSR:
These governments controlled education tightly and restricted intellectual freedom. Censorship and propaganda replaced critical inquiry and allowed mass manipulation, suppression of dissent, and moral atrocities to occur without widespread public resistance.
Colonial contexts across Africa, the Caribbean, and Indigenous North America:
Colonizers often denied or severely restricted education to maintain control. The result was limited economic mobility, reduced civic capacity, and generational barriers to self-governance. Many nations continue to address the long-term consequences of these policies.
Afghanistan under Taliban rule in the late 1990s and again after 2021:
Severe restrictions on education, especially for women and girls, reduced workforce capability, undermined civic participation, and weakened the country’s ability to engage with global systems. A society with intentionally constrained education becomes less stable and less adaptable.
The United States during the Jim Crow era:
Legal and structural barriers to education for Black Americans were used to preserve racial hierarchy. Limited access to higher education contributed directly to economic inequality, civic disenfranchisement, and social vulnerability.
These examples show a consistent reality. When education is restricted, societies become easier to control, slower to progress, and more vulnerable to instability and injustice.
Closing Idea
Higher education is not simply about earning degrees. It is the infrastructure that allows societies to think, govern, innovate, and coexist. A more educated society is capable of building a future. An ignorant society becomes trapped in its past.
Dr. Treca Bourne 