Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Higher Ed 2.0 (What We Got Right/Wrong)

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

This is basically an argument that many institutions of higher education in the United States will close - they may survive the pandemic, but only as the walking dead. It's overstated, perhaps, but not wrong. The end will come the instant the university degree ceases to be valid and exclusive currency. "This is bad news for schools without the global brand equity of the elites. They are being unbundled, piece by piece, just as newspapers were dissected (classifieds, movie listings, news, sports) and sold for parts to benign billionaires... (but) As bad as this looks for America's second-tier, four-year colleges, it may be great news for America... We need to find ways to invest in the non-college bound, and create on-ramps into the corporate economy without the ritual of a $200,000 college education." Well, it will take more than that. Free college and taxing the rich are a start, but these will not by themselves address the inequalities that threaten to undermine the foundations of U.S. society.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Apr 26, 2024 01:18 a.m.

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