University education is pretty much what you put into it. If you sit and wait for knowledge to be spoonfed you will get theory and research, because that's the

University education is pretty much what you put into it. If you sit and wait for knowledge to be spoonfed you will get theory and research, because that's the only thing that can be learned that way. If you take a more active part in your education you will absolutely get a lot more than theory and research. For example I teach databases and one of my first year tutees comes to my office hours and asks me for advice implementing the database part of a website he is working on. He is the only one who bothers coming so I spend an hour every week whiteboarding database design and optimisation with him, and explaining how to design the architecture of his app. Another one comes to me on a regular basis and seeks my advice on machine learning (my field of research), and I give him guided readings and advice on adding some light ML in a game he is working on. Both of them will get a lot more of their education than theory and research, because they understand that what they are paying for isn't a weekly one man show of some dude standing on a podium and talking for a couple of hours, it's access to expertise.