Why College May Be Totally Free Within 10 Years

Time: Why College May Be Totally Free Within 10 Years

... Yet if Wadhwa is right the student debt problem will take care of itself—at least as it relates to the next generation and those that follow. Online courses will proliferate to such a degree that acquiring knowledge will become totally free. There will still be a cost associated with getting a formal degree. But most universities, he says, “will be in the accreditation business.” They will monitor and sanction coursework; teachers will become mentors and guides, not deliver lectures and administer tests. This model has the potential to dramatically cut the cost of an education and virtually eliminate the need to borrow for one, he says.

This isn’t an argument that Thiel was ready to entertain. His focus is on skipping college altogether unless you can get into a top-tier school and are certain to enter a highly paid field. He believes we are experiencing a “psycho-social” bubble in higher education. Everyone believes they have to have a college degree and so they will borrow and pay any amount to get one from any school.

Most families view a college degree as insurance; something they can buy to guarantee that they do not fall through society’s cracks, Thiel says. But what they are really buying is “a dunce hat in disguise” because employers have less respect than ever for a degree that comes from a second-tier university. Such a degree, in Thiel’s view, brands a graduate as mediocre.

Summers, a former president of Harvard, agrees that higher education is in transition. But he thinks Thiel is “badly wrong” about his bubble theory and that Wadhwa is severely underestimating the value of the total university experience. The gap between what college graduates and high school graduates earn is only widening, which speaks to the continuing value of a college degree—no matter what it costs. And, says Summers, “If you think higher education is expensive, try ignorance.”...

... For his part, Wadhwa allows that there will always be students able and willing to pay for a traditional college experience and for them it will be a worthwhile investment. But for the vast majority, from a financial standpoint that kind of education makes no sense and is fast becoming unnecessary. He believes the higher education revolution is coming soon and will happen fast—perhaps fast enough to keep the next generation from finishing school with debts they may never be able to pay.

I think what Wadhwa says in the last paragraph is probably true.

Comments

[JHM]

From my perspective as a science professor, I see the value of having parts of classes online, but I'm always a little concerned about the idea that online classrooms are the future because we do more than deliver content.

I spend about half of my teaching load running labs, teaching physical skills and interacting with instruments. Even virtual labs are a poor replacement for the physical and reasoning skills developed in the lab. I don't know how you do that for free or remotely.

I also wonder about how this idea of massive open online courses (MOOC) stacks up with the wealth of information out there that says education has to be more than content delivery. Maybe it's a bit of bruised ego, but I'd like to think that as I am dedicating my life to higher education, I am more than a content-delivery and grading machine.

[Michael W. Kruse]

Thanks for your thoughts! What I suspect is that there may be a "weeding" of the disciplines. Some disciplines will be highly amenable to MOCC, some will not, others will have element of both. The old models will not completely disappear but the may recede in dominance as variety of other models emerge alongside.

As I was thinking about this I think professors are about to be hit with the same disorientation that pastors have felt in the church as traditional models recede and the number of models multiplies.

[Dana Ames]

We need more and better vocational education. I think this is really being overlooked as a potential path for the student who has no interest in college but wants to make a good living. Providers of quality VoEd would also be able to make money for their training skills.

Dana

[MBA College in Mumbai]

It would be really good for those who really wants education and it can also change the literacy ratio in the nation as well.

[Trident University]

Every student is different; some are more suited for vocational training while others want the traditional degree. Online education is great for personal enrichment but the online medium can also be used to make education more affordable.