The possibility of converting college education to an online -- rather than in person -- experience, has many questioning the cost of a college degree. Of course, if such a conversion caused a reduction in tuition, the universities would still be stuck with the massive overhead of the land and buildings they own.
The debate is not new. Following the Great Recession, many questioned the value proposition of a college degree as many graduates couldn't find jobs with incomes sufficient to pay off their student loans. Historical data continues to support the value of a degree in terms of lifetime income differentials between those that have one and those that don't. But past is not prologue.
I have been questioning the value of a college degree for some time. I first wrote about it in 2012 (Is the education we want the education we need?), pointing out that industrial powerhouse Germany relies on an apprentice program to enable the middle class to obtain good-paying jobs.
In the following year, my headline read "Don't Send Your Kids to College." In that post, I suggested we not take it as an article of faith that a degree will provide the skills to get a good job and recommended parents and students take "responsibility for the outcome, discovering what employers want" to get the training and education that's right for the job market.
In 2015, I suggested we replace our expensive universities with a lower overhead model that combined online education with semi-annual visits to lower cost facilities in "It's time to replace our universities with..."
Later, I asked the rhetorical question "When will the university bubble burst?" Perhaps the time is NOW!
WHO WILL LEAD?
