I’ve learnt almost everything I know about Web Design & Development by myself from the age of 11. As a kid I came across one of those free hosting websites and was inspired to create my own using a simple editor to create the site. After toying around with it I wanted better functionality, so I found this thing called HTML and was on my way to developing my own layouts, placing images, etc.

Back then Web Design & Development was so much simpler.

Now, it seems everyone and their Dog has their own website, and the Web industry has kicked off into one of the leading sectors in the world, a place where perhaps even a recession could not hit. To tap into this market some university’s are offering degrees in Web Design & Development, where over three years a student can learn enough to get competitive web-oriented jobs anywhere around the world.

For someone who has spent the best part of a decade toying and learning about the Web you’d think this is troubling. It is, but not on a personal level, only on a quality level.

I do not agree that a degree is essential for any Web Designer or Developer, nor do I believe that it is essential for any software-related job. If a candidate can prove to their prospective employer that they are qualified for the job, showcasing a range of previous work that beats the other candidates they should get the job. However, having a degree proves to employers that you are serious about what you do, and that you’ve been able to stick with three years of formal education to get to the point you’re at now. It also allows you to compare realistically how good someone is from what they were taught at university.

For general design going to art school is almost required. Design students gain so much from their respective art schools that they seem very attractive to whoever wishes to employ them. They gain things like mentoring, usage of equipment they’d never be able to use/afford when going solo, discipline in lots of required subjects and a credibility that shines through their work.

For Web Design/Development, not so much.

To put it simply, unless you’re extremely gifted with programming and scripting in several languages, as well as knowledgeable with Project Management situations, Quality Management and all other aspects of deployment and software development you will need a degree.

The sad realisation is that many Web Development jobs will want graduates applying. That doesn’t mean you can’t score a job somewhere, but for anything worthwhile you’ll either need a degree or a few years experience working on large projects. I know of several people working on complicated projects using Web Technologies who have recently graduated, yet I know only one person with a Web job that has no Higher Education under his belt, and he only got the job because he is a Programming genius.

Web Design and Development are not just academic subjects, they are vocational in their very execution. University courses are very academic, and vocational practice is given a back-seat to book smarts. On top of this Web Designers and Developers rely on using cutting-edge technologies that simply will not get pushed through at university level. The logic notes that an entire degree aimed at Web Design/Development is a good thing, but it entirely comes down to what is being taught, and who is teaching it.

For a number of Web Design/Development degrees on offer look no further than Google for your search. I will not be picking on any programmes here because it’s not my right to slate people more qualified than me. I will say this though, a Web Design/Development degree is a bad idea, and I highly recommend that if you were to take any degree to get a job as a Web Development that you’ll choose Computer Science.

You see, it just takes one lecturer at a university to make one mad move and a student is forever stuck using frames or doing anything else that is a deal-breaker with any Web Designers/Developers. By looking through some random university’s programme structure I noticed that many of them are teaching bad practices, even though they tout their decades of experience with the Web. This is the problem! You could’ve been working with the Internet from the second it was invented, but if you’re not continuously around those doing it for a living right now then that’s it, you’re learning old material and your degree and career prospects are dropping in value.

A few days ago I was working on a PHP script in one of my university’s few computer labs when a final year Web Design student asked me for help with his layout, so close to his deadline and allegedly so close to achieving a first. It took me an hour to almost completely rewrite his code and work with him on designing a cleaner layout in Photoshop. Why did I do this for a final year student? First of all he offered to buy me a beer, but partially because I felt bad for him that he had followed a degree that offers little reward. I was open enough to him to refer him to a couple of sites and online communities to build up his skills a bit more, because even he admitted that his skills wouldn’t get him a top job.

This is not to say that students don’t finish a Web Design/Development degree with a fantastic skill-set. I’m sure there are hundreds that have graduated and landed top jobs or are developing great tools on the Internet. However, after spending over £9,500 on a degree (in the new price tariff) what do these graduates actually get? Three years of knowledge that’ll shift in an entirely new direction by the time they graduate, potentially lethal misdirection, poor coding practices, no knowledge of version control or deployment, and a very uncertain future.

All these new university’s need to learn that Web Design/Development isn’t something you can throw a couple of classes around to teach someone. Offering a degree in Web Design and Development offers very little hope for the long-term future when they could take somewhat similar but very good-named degrees like Computer Science or Software Engineering.

If you want to get into Web Design/Development with a degree there are two routes I could suggest:

1. Take a Computer Science degree, where you’ll learn basic Web Design/Development skills as well as essential software and theoretical skills that you can pass over. This is of the most benefit because the Web is no longer about making pretty websites and creating a few dynamic scripts. New technologies are looming and if Web Applications start to take off you’ll need your theoretical and practical knowledge to adjust to this new medium.
2. Take a Business degree, and build up your skills alongside it. Join an online community dedicated to Web Design and Development like the very-popular SitePoint Forums and you’ll benefit from a far-better ‘education’ than any university could teach you. Once you graduate you can use your business expertise to create truly worthwhile websites.

Take either one of those choices, but do not take a Web Design/Development degree unless you’re positive it’s what you want to do for the rest of your life! If you want to take that route then you’ll most likely have to do the same amount of outside learning any of the above choices will have to do, and you’ll get very little theoretical/business knowledge for your troubles.