Last week, a group of entrepreneurs, academics, and venture capitalists participated in a panel discussion at New York University’s Stern School of Business on the future of higher education. The multidisciplinary group aimed to address whether online learning (including Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs) would fundamentally change our system of higher education, or whether the traditional university structure would still exist in the future. The discussion was profiled in an article on Inc.com.
Prominent panelists included Codecademy CEO Zach Sims, New York University President John Sexton, McKinsey & Company director Andre Dua, Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen, and NYU Journalism Institute writer-in-residence Clay Shirky. While the academics and startup representatives disagreed on the extent of changes to the educational system, there was one thing everyone could agree on. Sexton summarized the general consensus in the room: “the status quo is not an option. We’re in for what I call a radical restructuring of higher education today.”
A traditional college education can cost tens of thousands of dollars, and is thus inaccessible to a great number of people. Christensen, a scholar of innovation, observed that online education made an approximation of higher education more accessible. As more people turn toward low cost education, its quality will improve, and students will be drawn from traditional higher education to high-quality, low-price alternatives.
Dua observed that expensive degrees can be made more attractive to students by reducing the fear of student debt. Right now, the cost of college is a barrier to education for some individuals, particularly since degrees do not guarantee jobs after graduation. Dua believes that student loan organizations may begin to offer loans that will not need to be paid back until a student has found a job where they are guaranteed an income above a certain minimum amount, like $50,000 per year.
Sims observed that programs that teach practical skills are a tempting alternative to traditional education. He dropped out of Columbia University because he believed his education was not giving him the skills he’d need in the real world. He founded the online company Codecademy to teach people coding skills. He notes that two thirds of graduates believe that they will need more training after graduation, and that online programs like Codecademy teach practical skills more effectively than a liberal arts education.
The panel ultimately concluded that the university of the future will not be a traditional university, but it also won’t be an online platform offering lots of MOOCs. Shirky believes that universities will become highly specialized, like the biomedical research institute Rockefeller University. He also believes that universities will increasingly focus on teaching students valuable and practical skills. While there are many different directions traditional universities can take, it seems unlikely that they can remain viable without undergoing some change.
