Some people think that universities should provide graduates with the knowledge and skills needed in the workplace. Others think that the true function of a university should be to give access to knowledge for its own sake, regardless of whether the course is useful to an employer. What, in your opinion, should be the main function of a university?
Sample Response
These days, universities provide various courses that were previously taught within familieswhich were taught by families earlier fromlike tile fixing to makeup techniques. In spite of making such arrangements for everyone to learn these skills, some people still believesome exceptional people believe that universities teach subjects only rather than focusing on real world use. First of all, universities have to focus on the whole class rather than a small group of studentswhole class instead of a bunch of students. So, universities have to come up with course materiala course material which can be grasped by a majority of students. Employers do expect a specialised skill from an individual. However, it is an unrealistic expectation from the universities to prepare each student according to each employer's requirementsas per the employer's requirements. Moreover, it is difficult for a student to imaginestudent also to imagine the need for the real world and learn the subject without experiencing it. For example, you ask a student to write a program to handle the security threats on servers. It could be very difficult for a student to write such a program as there are many viruses which target only certain types of servers. Another important area where universities focus is to provide the basic knowledge of the entire subject and let the students choose the job of their interest. For instance, computer engineering course teaches about databases, programming languages as well as hardware. It is up to a student to choose whether he wants to be a softwareprogrammer developer or a database designer. It is certainly beneficial for the employers as well. If a fresher knows many subjects, an employer can train him on any subject as per the project requirement. For example, Infosys hires thousands of computer engineers every year in place of Java-certified studentsa Java certified students. Infosys can train a computer engineer for testingcomputer engineer for testing or support department. However, it is difficult to train a java developer for web designing. I believe universities are just doing the best what they could do to prepare a student for the upcoming opportunities and challenges.
Why this response received Band 6.0
This response presents a relevant position and supports it with concrete examples from university courses and employer training. Its main limitation is that it largely reframes the question as broad workplace preparation, giving too little attention to knowledge pursued for its own sake, while the single-paragraph structure obscures progression. The highest priority is to compare both purposes directly and organise that comparison into clear, distinct paragraphs.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The response gives a relevant opinion that universities should provide broad subject knowledge rather than tailor courses to each employer. However, it only partly addresses the alternative view about knowledge for its own sake, so the central contrast in the question is narrowed to general workplace preparation.
Explain directly whether universities should mainly serve employment, pure knowledge, or a balanced function, and address the “knowledge for its own sake” view explicitly.
Coherence and Cohesion
Ideas are generally connected, but the essay is one long paragraph and the argument lacks clear stages. Examples are relevant but progression would be much clearer with separate paragraphs.
Use an introduction, two body paragraphs, and a conclusion, with one body paragraph on workplace skills and one on broad academic knowledge.
Lexical Resource
There is adequate topic vocabulary for university study and employment, but collocations are sometimes awkward and several phrases are imprecise.
Use natural academic phrases such as “course content,” “the majority of students,” “specialised workplace skills,” and “entry-level graduates.”
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The response uses some complex clauses, but errors with articles, agreement, prepositions, and noun forms occur regularly.
Check singular countable nouns and article use, especially with “course,” “student,” “engineer,” and “developer.”
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Some people think that universities should provide graduates with the knowledge and skills needed in the workplace. Others think that the true function of a university should be to give access to knowledge for its own sake, regardless of whether the course is useful to an employer. What, in your opinion, should be the main function of a university?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.