
Newspapers Are Dying. Are Universities Next? - robg
http://chronicle.com/free/v55/i30/30a02101.htm
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dkasper
Universities are like Y Combinator. You can learn everything you need to start
a company on the internet, does that make Y Combinator worthless? You can
learn everything you need to be a software engineer on the internet, does that
make a degree in computer science worthless?

Universities offer a community of individuals learning together including
student organizations, mentorship with faculty, and connections to get jobs
later. Sure, if all you are going to do is fill a seat you might as well just
do your learning online. But you'd be missing the point of a university
education.

On the other hand, do newspapers have a value add to consumers beyond their
content which is available for free online now?

~~~
ShabbyDoo
Y Combinator is inexpensive compared to the value it provides. Also, are the
substitutes (reading about stuff, etc.) worth a fraction of the summer
experience? Note that I know nothing of YC other than what I've read!

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sophacles
Many colleges/universities existed before the Gutenburg printing press (see
Oxford, Cambridge,University of Paris). Was there speculation at that time
about how the book (the next big thing in information distribution) was going
to put them out of business?

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FiReaNG3L
Online universities don't have near the reputation of old ones. Its not the
education that counts, its the diploma, sadly

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Tangurena
Part of the problem is that the cost of college/university education has
skyrocketed far faster than inflation [1]. With easy-to-get loans for students
[2], universities have no incentive to cut price increases. With the vast rise
in adjuncts, they've cut back on the main reason for attending uni in the
first place: the teachers.

Notes:

1 - Tuition and fees have been rising about 2x that of CPI (consumer price
index is the number reported in the media as "inflation").
<http://www.finaid.org/savings/tuition-inflation.phtml>

2 - Student loans are easy to get because legislation made them impossible to
discharge in bankruptcy. Federal subsidies to the lenders make them far more
profitable than just about any other loan.

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ShabbyDoo
It's not likely that a MIT CS graduate will be incompetent, but the
probability of ineptitude increases quickly as one goes beyond the
internationally known, top-tier schools.

In some ways, the value of a formal education has been diminished. Thankfully,
I have never been forced to exclude candidates based on academic pedigree.
And, I test _everyone_ in interviews to see if they're clueful. So, if I'm
already willing to accept candidates without regard to pedigree and I have to
act as the gatekeeper myself, there's little disadvantage for an education
seeker (I had to choose words carefully here) to "take" OpenCourseware
classes, perhaps with a group. Furthermore, I'd respect such initiative much
more than someone who attended a mid-tier CS program (like I did).

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dasil003
_...the football coach, and other expensive things that cost more than they
bring in._

This statement by itself shows how utterly ignorant the author is about
university cashflow.

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ShabbyDoo
"recently began offering graduate courses in education administration, another
traditional cash cow, through a for-profit online provider"

Yeah...it's a cash cow because one has to have a license (and therefore a
degree) to be a school administrator in the US.

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AlleyRow
When faced with any threat, Universities will take the steps to evolve and
become more efficient. Newspapers failed to do so...hence their current
predicament.

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vaksel
don't think so. Students are brainwashed from the first grade that you need a
college degree to get a good job, newspapers never had that

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erlanger
College is not even remotely as necessary as most people think. Education,
however, is twice as important.

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steve_mobs
I don't think so. Most companies require a university degree to hire someone.
The degree shows the firm that you are somewhat competent.

