Are Universities Going the Way of CDs and Cable TV?

Like mass media and mass commerce, the average university is on the brink of collapse. Its structure is a rotting legacy of the Industrial Age. For years, anybody who wanted to learn on their own lacked the means to do so. Now, anybody with an internet connection has access to information. Harvard and Stanford will be okay, but dark days are ahead ... See more

One of these would transform the way students pay for higher education. Instead of enrolling, for example, they might subscribe to college; for a monthly fee, they could take whatever courses they want, when they want, with long-term access to advising and career help.

Still remaining is the possibility of achieving major cost reductions through the use of online courses. It is quite possible that technology will permit colleges to offer an education of equal (or better) quality with fewer professors and thus bring the same type of cost savings to higher education that industry has long enjoyed through substituti

... See more