The future of higher education?

[breadandbutterfly]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18191589

Is the future of higher education online?

Interesting article - will UK students opt to pay £9K a year for content they can access for free online, in their own time?

Very interesting. It seems to me that higher education is all about self-motivation: can you organise yourself to study and meet deadlines without someone nagging? Students are not paying £9k for tuition; they are paying £27k for the piece of paper at the end which is an impartial assessment of how hard they worked.
Once businesses start to realise this, I wonder how long before they jump on the bandwagon and start charging employees for a similar scheme. It would be re-inventing the wheel - back to the old days of apprentices buying their indentures.

I know several universities in the US already allow service men & women to do their courses online. Was shocked to discover 2 people doing the same strange course living near us. Apparently one does one assignment the other does the next and they exchange assignments so they can rewrite them. They told us it was common practice !!! But then again there are several US universities where you already are pretty much just buying your degree

Harvard does something like this. Instead of expecting students to sit in a hall the lecturer gives the talk online. Students are expected to study it and the lecturer expects to discuss all the tricky bits and have a Q&A in a seminar afterwards. Apparently it's more efficient that way?

I do see how online is different to in a lecture room. As long as there is 'touch' time with the tutor during the course.

What about seminars?

Distance learning has been on offer from some top universities for a fair amount of time - but there is a very low take up rate so far.

I think those who want to study for a degree as a qualification would be tempted to look at the options available but I think most 18 year olds are looking for the whole life experience package so will stick with the traditional model....