Many modern students nowadays are used to text messages and the Internet and generally have a shorter attention span. Thus, it becomes important to keep them focused, and the best way to do so is to offer them course variety. Short courses do not bore the students with too many details but give them general overviews of topics of interest. As a result, they have more possibilities to explore fields and to expand more on subjects they find most interesting.
Since the courses do not last as long as others and there are less likely to be gaps between classes due to holiday breaks, students have a better ability to remember and recall the studied material. As the students are engaged in the topic over a shorter amount of time, all the topics remain fresh in their memory and they have a better chance of achieving more success and having ultimately better grades and results on their exams.
Many students enter university with little idea of what they would like to study. They may aimlessly wander from course to course and change majors various times. However, short courses would give them a good overview of the fields, and that way they can find out whether the major is the right one for them without losing both time and money. As a result, you have the chance of finding your field of interest more quickly.
Apart from learning a lot of new material in a short amount of time, you also have the opportunity of increasing and widening your network among university professors and fellow students. By becoming known to others in the field, you have taken an important step of sharing interests and of becoming known to a larger part of the university community. Short courses take students out of their niche and help them network with other members; everybody benefits from these interactions.