Nowadays, many people insist on studying only courses that could be helpful for future work, while others assume that at university it is important to learn only the subjects that you think are interesting. In my opinion, students should decide by themselves what to study.
Firstly, if we allow only useful courses that have pretty similar programs, many students will receive the same skills because they will read the same books and do the same exercises However, in the work market there are only a few vacancies with the similar requirements, which could lead to a big competition and huge risk of unemployment.
Secondly, the same course can be difficult for some students and easy for others, because all the students have different abilities. If this course is obligatory, it is crucial that the complexity would not be very high. As a result, universities will simplify the course and will make a shorter program, it will not give a deep understanding about the theme. So the quality of such education will not be high.
On the other hand, a permission to choose a subject could be very dangerous for a student’s future career. With high probability he will choose interesting but not applicable courses, so after graduation he could have problems with applying for a job.
In conclusion, I would like to say that even though a possibility of choice is a good thing, it also may have some disadvantages for the future career of a student.