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Name: The End of College
Rating: 4.2 (28 reviews)
Author: Kevin Carey

Kevin Carey

Creating the Future of Learning and the University of Everywhere

4.2 (28 ratings)

18 mins

Brief summary

'The End of College' by Kevin Carey argues that traditional higher education is too expensive and outdated. He proposes alternative online models that are more flexible, affordable, and accessible.

Topics

Higher Education

Table of Contents

The End of College
Summary of 7 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 7

What’s in it for me? Find the university of your dreams.

Have you ever dreamed of attending a university where you could have conversations with other people during class or enjoy your lunch while learning? How about taking your biology course down by the beach or learning about law in a café instead of spending lonely hours in dusty libraries?

If any of this appeals to you, you might be the perfect student for the university of the future; the University of Everywhere.

Online resources already make it possible to access more knowledge through a computer screen than can be found even in the largest libraries and universities in the world. And institutions are beginning to offer more and more online classes. As this body of knowledge grows, education will also become increasingly accessible at a low cost, which will be a considerable contrast to the current elitist education system in the United States.

In these blinks you will learn

where the first university was founded;
why it wouldn’t be a great loss if many current universities close; and
how knowledge will become much more accessible to everyone in the future.

The future of higher education is online, and it’s already here.

Let’s face facts. The American higher education system isn’t fit for its purpose. It produces too many dropouts, lets degrees drag on and limits the scope of their subject matter.

There are studies to back this up. It’s been shown that not even two-fifths of enrolled students meet the four-year deadline for graduating from college. What’s more, two-thirds of them still haven’t graduated after six years.

The US census confirms this. According to the 2014 census, an incredible 35 million people over the age of 25 have dropped out of college.

And what about the skills the students were meant to learn? Sociologists Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa conducted a survey of students from a diverse range of colleges in the United States. The study found that after two years of college, 45 percent of students had not advanced in fundamental disciplines. These included critical thinking, communication and analytical reasoning. Even after the full four years of college, 46 percent of the students had made no statistically significant progress.

But there’s a solution. It’s what the author calls the University of Everywhere. It’s a new way to get educated. Free online courses will be available to everyone wherever or whenever they want them, 24/7.

It’ll be much more egalitarian too. It’s not just a finishing school for the wealthy or for those burdened with big loans. There will simply be no debts because there are no overheads online.

This isn’t some crazy vision of the future. The University of Everywhere is already here.

The author himself attended an introductory series on biology by a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The class had been set up by edX, an online educational organization established by MIT and Harvard University.

So if online courses are the future, what went wrong in the first place?

The first universities were all about the students, but this soon changed.

Have you ever considered when and where the first universities emerged? Or even what their ethos was? Well, they were originally student focused.

The first university was established in Bologna in 1088 – by students! They hired teachers on contracts that today’s professors would balk at, to say the least. There were strict conditions and rules. Teachers couldn’t just cancel class if they felt like it and punctuality was a must. What’s more, they were fined if student attendance was too low, because it was a sure sign that the teacher wasn’t doing his job properly by keeping the students engaged in earlier lectures.

The printing press influenced the university model that was brought to the United States.

From the fifteenth century, Gutenberg’s printing press spread knowledge throughout Europe. In the wake of its impact you might expect the power balance in the knowledge economy to shift. After all, books were cheaper, in wider circulation and sometimes even affordable!

But did things change? Absolutely not.

The American University has three founding principles.

The fundamentals behind the very concept of a university have never been resolved: What should it be? At whom should it aim its teachings? What subjects should be taught?

In the United States, three principles guided universities from the start.

Charles William Eliot created the hybrid university – and with it the market for education.

Today’s universities are hybrid institutions. This means they don’t exist solely as research, practical training or liberal arts institutions. The hybrid model was devised by the former president of Harvard University, Charles William Eliot (1834–1926).

Eliot believed that before students became world-class scholars in, say, chemistry, medicine or law, they should first be taught to observe and contemplate. His general bachelor’s degree was designed to nurture these skills.

American universities levy big fees from undergraduates, but they don’t really care about students.

Even the briefest examination of the American education system reveals its deep flaws. And there are some pretty big elephants in the room.

For starters, it’s clear that the focus of the hybrid university is skewed. It focuses primarily on research at the expense of undergraduate teaching. The three principles aren't evenly weighted.

What the University of Everywhere lacks in close teacher–student relationships, it makes up for in flexibility.

Just imagine earning credit for your degree while you’re at home with your snug comforter around you. The University of Everywhere lets you do it. Perhaps you can forgive its few faults.

Let’s begin with the downsides. When compared to the current hybrid-model university, the University of Everywhere lacks the face-to-face interaction that comes from a student–teacher relationship. Direct contact with a teacher is a plus, but let’s not make a big deal of it. Teachers at hybrid universities still aren’t trained properly.

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What is The End of College about?

The End of College (2015) is about the American higher education system. These blinks give a historical overview of how the author sees the development of the American university and its evolution from European models. He evaluates its current status and advocates for the University of Everywhere – a remotely accessible university of the future.

Who should read The End of College?

Students of public policy and education policy
People curious about online learning
Historians interested in higher education

About the Author

Kevin Carey directs the Education Policy Program at the nonprofit research organization New America. He has also taught education policy at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. He is a regular contributor to the New York Times and has written for publications such as Wired and Slate.

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