THIS IS THE FUTURE OF COLLEGE
IT'S
NOT THE DEATH OF HIGHER EDUCATION, BUT COLLEGE AS WE'VE KNOWN IT WILL BE FORCED
TO UNDERGO SOME DRAMATIC CHANGES IN THE NEXT DECADE.
The college experience
has been roughly the same for the last 100 years: You pick a major, find a
school, buy the books, attend the lectures, write the papers, take the tests,
get the grades, graduate, work to pay off debt.
For years, college was
the best pathway to a job. But as costs continue to rise and the percentage of
graduates finding work falls, students are beginning to wonder: What’s the real
value of a college education?
"Charging people
lots of money to provide them with skills they could learn from an Internet
video is probably not gonna be a viable long-term financial model,"
says Richard Miller, president of Olin College of Engineering.
"Knowledge is now a commodity. It’s really inexpensive and easy to get.
Who’s gonna pay you for that? So now we’re in the process of changing."
But changing how?
Experts say that
within the next 10 to 15 years, the college experience will become rapidly
unbundled. Lecture halls will disappear, the role of the professor will
transform, and technology will help make a college education much more
attainable than it is today, and much more valuable. Indeed, a number of
institutions may shut down. But those that survive will be innovative and
efficient. Here’s what they’ll look like.
KNOWLEDGE IS NOW A
COMMODITY. IT’S REALLY INEXPENSIVE AND EASY TO GET. WHO’S GONNA PAY YOU FOR
THAT?
For college students
today, success is measured in credit hours. Time spent in the classroom,
reading, attending lectures, taking tests, all done with the hope of a passing
grade. But all the credit hours in the world don’t guarantee students actually
learn anything applicable in the workplace, and employers know this all too
well. "I can’t tell you how many times I hear clients say, ‘I just can’t
find the right person for this job, and I can’t go to colleges because the
students don’t have the innate competency,’" says Michael Maciekowich,
national director of HR consulting firm Astron Solutions, LLC. "In our
business, there’s a competency required that is not learned in school."
Indeed, in one survey, 60% of employers complained that job applicants lack
interpersonal and communication skills. They can pass a calculus exam, but they
can’t identify or solve problems on the job, or negotiate, or lead a meeting.
For the college students of tomorrow, these soft skills, obtained through
hands-on experiences, will be the yardstick for learning, not how many credit
hours or semesters you have under your belt.
IN OUR BUSINESS,
THERE’S A COMPETENCY REQUIRED THAT IS NOT LEARNED IN SCHOOL.
Schools are already
responding to the demand for this kind of education with programs aimed
specifically at giving students tangible skills that are applicable in the
workplace. College for America, an online branch of Southern New Hampshire
University, was the first program to receive permission from the federal government
to give degrees based on "actual learning versus seat time." Students
advance not by ticking off classes but by proving they’ve mastered specific
skill sets, or "competencies."
"They’re not just
learning math in the abstract, they’re learning how to use charts or graphs to
convey information, or how to negotiate with others to resolve a
conflict," explains Julian
Alssid, chief workforce
strategist at SNHU. Because it’s all online, annual tuition is $2,500, a
fraction of the average cost for most colleges. The program launched two years
ago with 200 students and is projected to have 5,000 students in the coming
year, Alssid says. As of last year, more than 350 U.S. institutions were
dabbling in similar competency-based models.
To stay relevant,
colleges have to respond to the demands of the workplace. The College for
America exclusively admits students through their employers (though Alssid says
they may eventually "go retail"), meaning the tuition costs are often
covered by the companies in return for a worker trained in a specific skill set
that’s in high demand. These kinds of partnerships are becoming
more and more common.
"We think there’s
a real value net worth being created by these more direct partnerships with the
employers, and that has the ability to supercede the importance of the
brand-name recognition or even accreditation," says Michelle Weise, a senior research fellow at theClayton Christensen Institute specializing in disruptive innovation in
higher education.
One dominant fear
among academics is that online education will completely replace the physical
campus and the professor. This is unlikely, at least in the short term.
Students still see value in being exposed to new people and new ideas, and
creating a network of valuable connections. But they won’t attend for four
years. Introductory 101 courses can be covered quickly (and affordably) by
massive open online classes (MOOCs) or bootcamps.
Once students have
that information under their belt, they’ll come to the physical campus for a
more hands-on experiential learning that can’t be taught online. "The
explosion of all the different things that aren’t universities, their presence
in the learning ecosystem, will both force and allow universities to recenter
themselves around the kind of learning that can’t take place in other kinds of
settings," saysRandall Bass, vice provost for education and professor of
English at Georgetown University.
The result will be a
mix-and-match education. Perhaps a year’s worth of online courses, maybe two
years on campus, another in a bootcamp environment. "I think the future of
education will be one where we see a blend, with some part of a campus experience
and an online experience," says Alssid.
"When
universities move from being informational to being developmental, the nature
of the major will change as well," says Ben Nelson, founder and CEO of
the Minerva Project, an intense online program rounding out its
first year in existence. "We already know that employers don’t care so
much about the major."
NINETY-THREE PERCENT
OF EMPLOYERS CARE MORE ABOUT "CRITICAL THINKING, COMMUNICATION, AND
PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILLS" THAN AN UNDERGRADUATE’S CONCENTRATION.
In one recent survey of 318 companies, 93% of employers cared
more about "critical thinking, communication, and problem-solving
skills" than an undergraduate’s concentration. They need hires who can
take on multiple responsibilities, which requires flexibility and a plethora of
skills. "We need to stop worrying about trying to make them experts in
very narrow fields," says Miller. "Instead, let’s focus on teaching
them the process of learning itself."
Schooling will become
more interdisciplinary. Instead of a degree in biology, emerging fields will
combine biology and global health, or neuroscience and entrepreneurship.
"The concept of the major will erode into something that looks like an
overall portfolio with a bunch of microcredentials that speak to a whole range
of strengths," says Bass.
You might ask where
the educator comes into play in this new world of fluid learning. "It’s
fair to say these changes are wreaking havoc on the way they are used to
thinking about higher education," says Weise. Students don’t need a person
to stand at the front of a room full of hundreds of students and lecture.
"Now, because information is everywhere, it has to be about a special
learning experience," she says.
A PROJECT-BASED
COLLEGE ENVIRONMENT WILL LOOK MORE LIKE A KINDERGARTEN CLASSROOM THAN A LECTURE
HALL, WITH SMALL GROUPS AND A TEACHER WHO ACTS AS A GUIDE.
A project-based
college environment will look more like a kindergarten classroom than a lecture
hall, with small groups and a teacher who acts as a guide. "It will be
much more focused on skills of mentorship, or helping to be the sort of lead
peer instructor on project sites where they’re bringing expertise in the way
that the doctor might bring to a whole office of medical staff," says
Bass.
"It’s not a
faculty-less world, but I think that one struggle of the next 20 years is
figuring out what it looks like to have a highly trained PhD-ed faculty that is
still central to this recentered, more project-focused world."
Many professors know
the changes are coming and are trying to prepare. Minerva, for example, has
seen 1,000 faculty inquiries in its first year. "I literally cannot tell
you the number of ultra-elite school presidents, deans, professors come up to
us and say, ‘We cannot wait until your success forces us to change,'" Nelson
says.
"Some places
won’t make it, a lot of smaller places will merge or disappear because value
proposition won't be there," Bass says. There may be debt strikes,
bankruptcies, consolidations, and closings. The change will be swift and
fierce, but for the better. "These are important institutions,"
Nelson says. "We cannot as a society afford to lose the university. It is
in everybody’s interest to preserve them, assuming they reform."
BY JESSICA
HULLINGER
http://www.fastcompany.com/3046299/the-new-rules-of-work/this-is-the-future-of-college
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