The Disappearance of Real Universities

Is it the beginning of the end?

The Disappearance of the Real University? |Blogs | NCRegister.com

 

This was the beginning of the end:

"In the mid-20th century, the government got the idea that everyone should be able to go to college. They started a grant and low-interest loan program that released millions upon millions of dollars for higher education, and the result was a boom-build in the number of universities, in the size of each university, and, most conspicuously, the cost of university education.

That boom is now a higher-education bubble: you’ve got a heavily subsidized “industry,” with a price-inflated product, and a shrinking demographic to fill seats in the classes."

 

I think the goal was to make it possible for people of all economic backgrounds to attend college. In the past, most people from low-income families wouldn't even attempt to attend college.

 

Can't argue with that - but this is not "end, " although it is a really jolting pothole in the evolutionary road of education.

It does, however, signal the beginning of an end - but only the end of things as we knew them. More like a new beginning for the process of education.

However it was achieved, and despite the inherent problems, the average level of education has increased dramatically. That's good and I hope we never see that trend reversing. In light of the knowledge explosion, I doubt any of us will. Nowadays, education is just one more thing that can be accomplished to a great extent via the Internet. If you can get a mortgage, book a tour of Mongolia, go car-shopping, research any topic you need/want to - then you can learn. Anything you want.

If you're ambitious, you can probably gain the knowledge required for many kinds of degrees free. Of course, if you want the actual degree, it costs. But, as we all know, you can shop around. And if your golden opportunity is located 5,000 or more miles away, today that's OK. You don't have to move. Sure, you might have amassed sufficient free knowledge - possibly - years ago at the Public Library. But compared to Internet resources, the library (aside from its Internet connection) is somewhat less useful, at least in my experience. And of course, it doesn't grant degrees. Neither does the Internet itself, but it'll hook you up... :smile:

So -- the old paradigm-or-whatever changes. (I really hate that word - once had a teacher who overused it.) Certainly, we will be living with the problems associated with old-mode education, for some time to come. But not forever. We'll probably get to enjoy a whole new set of problems. :smile:

J.