I had a longer response until I read that you are happy to let universities die off. I agree that MOOCs are great for several fields, but everything is not computer science. Even many engineering fields need the physical lab space to get the most impactful learning done. We are seeing many alternatives to universities arise, which are great, but I REALLY don't see how that translates into letting the world's best higher education system decay into disrepair.
Even computer science would suffer from pure online learning: learning to effectively work in groups, and to design and implement software together is a skill that is trained at university. Remote collaboration is entirely different and less applicable. Add to that the loss of any opportunity for lab work for embedded computing.
> computer science would suffer... learning to effectively work in groups
At my university, 'working effectively in groups' usually meant one smart kid at the computer in the computer lab doing all the work while 7 other kids swarmed around them and copying what they did as close as possible without triggering the 'plagiarizing' senses of the teacher.
I worked alone (in the same computer lab) so I could actually learn and internalize what I was taught, but I'd look around and that was a common sight.
A university is not required (and in fact, I'd argue that classwork and grades isn't a good structure for it) in order to figure out how to be effective in a group. Working a single job in fast food taught me more about working in a group than any group project at school or the 'Small Group Communications' class I was required to take for my major.
> everything is not computer science. Even many engineering fields need the physical lab space to get the most impactful learning done. We are seeing many alternatives to universities arise, which are great, but I REALLY don't see how that translates into letting the world's best higher education system decay into disrepair.
Have lab space then, have the government pay for it and schedule times for people who want to use it. Should not be limited to a university's chosen student body; it should be open to anyone that wants to learn.
You get much more than that and it gets superfluous. US universities are superfluous to the point of wastefulness.
I still say defund them and let them figure it out or shut down. But yes, I understand why this sounds extreme, particularly if you don't share my views of college being a super shit deal for most people (and universities--peddling such shit deals and responding to criticism with moral indignation--are no better than timeshare salesmen).
Also computer science is conceptually pretty easy as most fields go. Many of my friends are aerospace engineers and their classes were just conceptually way more difficult than mine and learning all that through MOOCs without a lot of support and hands on guidance would be prohibitively difficult.
