The Impact of Tertiary Level Education on Intellectual Development

Abstract

This study focused on analyzing the impact of the tertiary level of education, i.e., graduation and postgraduate education on the intellectual development of adults at universities in Karachi in a scenario where most of the students are studying higher education with economical aim of seeking a job or getting promotion in the existing role in the workplace, there are very few who aim higher education with the perspective of intellectual development. The study method is quantitative and descriptive; graduate and postgraduate level of education, and adult intellectual development, measured by Perry’s scheme of intellectual development designed by Dianne Bateman and Janet G Donald to measure Perry's strategy of intellectual development. The data was collected from 274 individuals with 47.1% males and 52.9% of females from 25 different universities situated in Karachi, on the questionnaire comprised of 17 items on the Likert scale, based on Perry's Scheme of Intellectual development to measure the adult development of college students, measuring them on four broad levels of Dualism, multiplicity, relativity, and commitment. Data were analyzed using the statistical technique of independent sample T-test to compare the mean score of the intellectual development of 47.1% of males and 52 of .9% of females of graduates and post-graduate on graduate and post-graduate levels of education. The findings from the study samples showed that there is a significant difference in gender i.e, male and female, in the intellectual development of graduated and postgraduate individuals. Moreover, intellectual development is also found to be significantly different among graduate and postgraduate levels of education.