Comments on: The End of the University (as we know it)

By: ParleyPPratt

ParleyPPratt — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 08:42:00 +0000

The virtual education movement is a gambit by the elite universities to remove the competition. At any rate, universities who still conduct original research will live. The rest of the students who want to party and watch football will be in trouble…

By: Caleb50

Caleb50 — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 21:30:00 +0000

Nope. You are wrong about Harvard. In 50 years the elite schools will still exist. Their campuses will still exist. They will still employ faculty. And the wealthy who can afford the traditional education these schools will still provide will still seek it out. The graduates of these elite schools with their traditional education will be the economic leaders. They will lord over everybody else…….who will be enrolled in cheap on-line training programs. These students will get a certificate of some sort. And the idea that Harvard will be enrolling millions is laughable. Harvard may indeed offer cheap on-line courses, but make no mistake about it. The students who enroll and complete those courses will NOT be Harvard students and they will NOT get a Harvard degree. The last thing the elite schools will do is destroy their brand and their status by handing out degrees to the great unwashed masses. No way. The future will be two-tiered: The rich will access the best of what we do now. And everybody else will be trained on-line to work for the rich. Where you are correct is that the middling institutions (public and private) will either close down or radically change. They will probably be local institutions where students get help (tutoring) and certified as they navigate their on-line courses made by more elite institutions.

By: baconman

baconman — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 02:44:00 +0000

I still don’t get why everyone is so excited about online education. Cheaper, you bet. Better??? For quite some time I’ve been in the camp that college is really just a place to kick you in the butt and get you to work. There is generally no reason why most students couldn’t learn the material on their own just by reading the text book and answering some of the questions that generally mark the end of each chapter. The problem is, most students/people don’t want to read the text book. The lecture, in many cases serves, as a first read for each chapter. I’ve yet to see any form of online course that will work in the sciences. There is no way you can dry lab these areas.

By: PiastWest

PiastWest — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 00:42:00 +0000

Any conservatives who thinks the collapse of the “higher-ed bubble” would be good news are fooling themselves. The techno-fixes in the author’s article herald ever more centralized control not over universities but over curriculum in individual courses. Curriculum will be centrally controlled by committees. Ask yourself whether anything good ever came of education by committees. Ask yourself what sorts of folks are likely to end up on those committees. The so-called free courses you can get online are being created by the same people who created the all the nonsense we have today. The problem is not the *form* of higher ed, it is the *content.*

By: FactsNotFallacies

FactsNotFallacies — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 17:56:00 +0000

It’s amazing you mention this, I was thinking the same thing recently when I pondered the possibility that the end of the University establishment will occur when the cost of sustaining it is revealed to be pointless. Only then will the predominently left-wing paradigm in the higher-ed system collapse.
I would love to see a new approach to higher ed that supports diversity of THOUGHT and not political correctness.

By: iowacitydissenter

iowacitydissenter — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 23:22:00 +0000

Yes, Something needs to be done about the rising costs of college. Also, too many universities are obsessed with pushing Diversity Uber Alles instead of giving students some wisdom and decent jobs skills. We’ve had alot of good ideas come out of academia, but also bad ones. Perhaps this new online stuff will give some competition, though the equivalent of a college education was in some ways always freely available at your local library. Online dating I’ve done plenty of and met plenty of people that way. But I’d still prefer to the old fashioned way of meeting someone( with a little mystery attached, instead of knowing their whole life story before you even say hello). What will the future look like? I don’t know. When making bold predictions, remember to have some humility about it. Otherwise, your article might read like this someday:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE7mi-gdIYw

By: Guest

Guest — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 23:22:00 +0000

In reply to iowacitydissenter.