I wouldn't be surprised if colleges just cut out the expensive facility and staff and sell the credentials directly at some point soon. You take an exam, and the colleges sell classes that give you some advantage during the exam, but if you are willing to pay "inflated price" you can totally just sit the exam and get the credits.
I mean thats already a thing for basically the entire first year of college in the United States if you go to a State school with the AP exams. And alot of the second year materially could easily be AP examined as well.
My experience is that it's not until your 3rd year that your past "digest information" and going into more critical analysis of what you are learning. If you EVER go into critical analysis of what you are supposed to be learning. You can get lots of 4 year degrees by just knowing what multiple choice answer to put down and be a semi component writer (that is know how to write a works cited page and not have spelling errors)
For STEM you might not actually go into critical analysis of what you are learning until your 4th year (if ever). Sense those degrees have more information you need to digest on average. I say this as someone who has gotten both a soft science degree (Sociology) and a STEM degree (Computer Science)
The phrase you might be looking for is "credit by examination."
There are CLEP tests for pretty much all the general education you need (ie the two initial years of easy bullshit they make you pay for) and many universities will let CS students test out of the first year or so of programming classes, leaving just the last two years of stuff like algorithms/databases/electives.
I mean thats already a thing for basically the entire first year of college in the United States if you go to a State school with the AP exams. And alot of the second year materially could easily be AP examined as well.
My experience is that it's not until your 3rd year that your past "digest information" and going into more critical analysis of what you are learning. If you EVER go into critical analysis of what you are supposed to be learning. You can get lots of 4 year degrees by just knowing what multiple choice answer to put down and be a semi component writer (that is know how to write a works cited page and not have spelling errors)
For STEM you might not actually go into critical analysis of what you are learning until your 4th year (if ever). Sense those degrees have more information you need to digest on average. I say this as someone who has gotten both a soft science degree (Sociology) and a STEM degree (Computer Science)