These are some of the questions you’ll find yourself pondering about higher education as you watch Andrew Rossi’s new film, 象牙塔, now in cinemas. OECD data shows that tuition levels in the US have become a class of their own. “It seems hard to see how these costs relate in meaningful ways to the value that students obtain,” 評論安德烈亞斯·施萊歇爾.
We live in the age of disruptive innovation. An age in which digital technology has the potential to bring down the cost of higher education and make it more accessible than ever before. I asked Michael Horn and Anthony Carnevale (who appears in the film) to join us in 全球搜索教育 today to talk about the future of higher education. Michael Horn is the co-founder of the Clayton Christensen Institute, 其教育計劃的執行主任. Tony Carnevale is Director and Research Professor of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.
Students from Asia and the rest of the world flock to our top American Universities. Many believe we have the best higher education system in the world and they are willing to pay for it. What does this mean for the continuing demand for places at US Colleges? What does it indicate about the strengths of these institutions?
邁克爾·霍恩: The rise of the upper-middle class in Asia has created significant demand for elite higher education. This is a good thing for many U.S. universities in the short to medium term, and is helping to sustain many. In the longer term, 但, because much of traditional American higher education is premised on limiting access and promoting selectivity — thereby keeping a limit on the number of seats available — there is a good chance that traditional institutions will be unable to keep up with this burgeoning demand and thereby open the door to the emergence of new institutions who can fill it. We are already seeing new elite institutions like the Minerva Project, which offers a highly selective liberal arts education that is far more affordable than the traditional American higher education, pop up to meet this new demand. As more of these institutions emerge that are affordable and selective, it could commoditize the offerings at the top.
In the UK you can get a BA degree in 3 years versus 4. Is that one solution you could see working in the US as a way to cut costs?
邁克爾·霍恩: Moving to a 3-year degree as opposed to a 4-year degree certainly saves students money, although for some institutions, it would represent lost revenue. 還, although many institutions offer a 4-year program today, students often take 6 years to graduate, or many will attend for many years and never graduate. 換句話說, the problem is significantly more complicated. 最終，, moving to a 3-year degree doesn’t address the more fundamental business model challenges of rising costs plaguing traditional colleges and universities, which stems in part from the conflation – and subsequent administration – of what should be three separate business models represented in research, 教學, and the networking aspects of a university, as well as the subsequent arms race to move up the prestige rankings.
A development that seems more exciting is the emergence of upstart online, competency-based degrees that make time to credential, a variable, and learning, a constant. As you master material, you move on, which means that the length of the degree is in the hands of the student and the support network that the institution puts around the student. Students can complete degrees significantly faster in these programs; and the programs – by being focused on teaching and learning only – are much more affordable. The key point is that the focus is not on the length but instead on the actual learning.
China and India will ultimately create their own Ivy Leagues. What do we do well that they can use? What can they learn from our mistakes?
邁克爾·霍恩: Top American universities have been beacons of cutting-edge research; that’s an engine that has produced great things for our economy and helped attract people from around the world. Although we certainly have challenges to our research model, 總體, the results have been impressive. What I think China and India would do well to try and avoid is replicating our model completely. They should try to avoid conflating research and teaching under one roof where the activities don’t have to be interdependent, 例如, so that they don’t create the cost and teaching quality issues that have resulted in the United States where research is almost always valued over good teaching.
There has been a lot of debate on the value of a liberal arts degree in a world where every industry is being disrupted by technology. Given the number of students who don’t have jobs, are we at the point where we need a task force to determine how students can acquire the skills they need to succeed in a 21st century workplace?
托尼·狂歡節: Ivory Tower brings to the fore the rolling tensions growing underneath the American higher education system in an even-handed way with no ideological biases to have those tensions and issues resolved. Currently there are already numerous efforts to resolve these issues and to ensure that students have the skills. The question then lies on creating information systems that ensure students have access to the data and the tools necessary to close the skill gap.
邁克爾·霍恩: We need to create many more programs that narrow the gap between students and employers. Online, competency-based programs – like Western Governors University, Southern New Hampshire’s College for America, University Now’s Patten University, 和更多 – stand to help. I’m also intrigued by programs like General Assembly and Dev Bootcamp, as well as offerings from companies like LearnUp.
I believe the liberal arts degree will continue to have a place and value in the world, but I think it will be able to be far more affordable so that many more people can consume a liberal arts education over the course of their lifetimes.
How big a role will technology play in bringing down the cost of higher education?
托尼·狂歡節: 科技是希望對許多低收入家庭的學生誰不能更有選擇性的機構. It’s one answer to getting costs under control due to low development and distribution costs as well as much more flexible and open access. 新的MOOC課程實例可以通過數以百萬計的學生以低成本進行訪問，但這些課程面對來自雇主誰沒有看到他們為學生準備作為可靠的憑據勞動力市場疑慮.
總體, MOOCS和其他類似的努力指向技術在網上學習形式的潛力轉變高等教育界的金融格局. 明確地, 會有提供者和學生雙方對贏家和輸家的混合. 然而, getting employers to value these courses, and improving the incentives of students to enroll and complete are the first steps in potentially using these new models to lower overall costs.
邁克爾·霍恩: Technology paired with business model innovation will play a critical role in bringing down the cost of higher education. Online, competency-based programs are already showing significant promise to tackle the challenge and represent very exciting disruptive innovations focused on learning and affordability. 我不認為 “the solution” will be contained in just one thing either. The unbundling of the components of the degree and the ability for students to customize their education by combining different components – online courseware from a Udacity, the brick-and-mortar co-learning space of a General Assembly, the social experience of a Habitat for Humanity perhaps – represent exciting ways to bring value to students’ lives in a variety of forms. We’re living in an exciting time, and the opportunities to extend access to an affordable and high-quality higher education will only grow in the years ahead, even as they present challenges to existing institutions to keep up.
All Photos are courtesy of Samuel Goldwyn Films
在全球搜索教育, 和我一樣，全球知名的思想領袖，包括邁克爾·巴伯爵士 (英國), 博士. 邁克爾座 (美國), 博士. 萊昂特司特因 (美國), 克萊克里斯坦森教授 (美國), 博士. 琳達·達林 - 哈蒙德 (美國), 博士. 馬達夫恰範 (印度), 邁克爾·富蘭教授 (加拿大), 霍華德·加德納教授 (美國), 安迪·哈格里夫斯教授 (美國), 伊馮娜赫爾曼教授 (荷蘭), 克里斯汀Helstad教授 (挪威), 讓·亨德里克森 (美國), 玫瑰Hipkins教授 (新西蘭), 科妮莉亞Hoogland教授 (加拿大), 這位傑夫·約翰遜 (加拿大), 太太. 尚塔爾考夫曼 (比利時), 博士. Eija Kauppinen (芬蘭), 國務秘書塔皮奧Kosunen (芬蘭), 多米尼克·拉方丹教授 (比利時), 休·勞德教授 (英國), 本·萊文教授 (加拿大), 主肯麥克唐納 (英國), 巴里McGaw教授 (澳大利亞), 希夫納達爾 (印度), Ř教授. 納塔拉詹 (印度), 博士. 吳PAK (新加坡), 博士. 丹尼斯教皇 (美國), 斯瑞達拉賈戈帕蘭 (印度), 博士. 黛安·拉維奇 (美國), 理查德·威爾遜·賴利 (美國), 肯·羅賓遜爵士 (英國), 帕西SAHLBERG教授 (芬蘭), 押尾佐藤教授 (日本), 安德烈亞斯·施萊歇 (PISA, 經合組織), 博士. 安東尼·塞爾頓 (英國), 博士. 大衛·謝弗 (美國), 博士. 基爾斯滕都沉浸式 (挪威), 總理斯蒂芬·SPAHN (美國), 伊夫Theze (法國公立高中美國), 查爾斯Ungerleider教授 (加拿大), 托尼·瓦格納教授 (美國), 大衛·沃森爵士 (英國), 迪倫Wiliam教授 (英國), 博士. 馬克沃莫爾德 (英國), 西奧Wubbels教授 (荷蘭), 邁克爾·楊教授 (英國), 和張民選教授 (中國) 因為他們探索所有國家今天面臨的大畫面的教育問題.
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ç. M. 魯賓是兩個廣為傳誦的在線系列，她接受了筆者 2011 厄普頓·辛克萊獎, “全球搜索教育” 和 “我們將如何閱讀?” 她也是三本暢銷書, 其中 真正的愛麗絲夢遊仙境, 是的發行 CMRubinWorld, 而且是干擾物基金會研究員.
按照ç. M. 魯賓在Twitter: www.twitter.com/@cmrubinworld
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