Rote vs. Deep Learning

A fellow exchange student's gchat status:

"Dear Cambridge: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rote_learning#Rote_learning_vs._actual_thinking"

It seems the course 6 (compsci) kids got a bit shafted ... in CUED (Cambridge's Engineering Dept), the problem is less that rote learning is forced over deep learning, but that the focus is pretty much entirely on theory, rather than appplication/practical use of engineering .. so I have to disagree in this instance and vouch for Cambridge that it does encourage "deep learning" in the understanding-theory-and-principles sense. A little too deep to be practically useful in the real world, though, but fantastic if you want a career as an academic.