The business of education goes bust
May 7 2033
Once regarded as the pinnacle of innovation and new thinking, universities across the world held a position of power and awe, demanding and receiving admiration and generous donations from famous patrons and alumni alike.
But in the late 20th century, something changed, something that ripped the foundation of the universities away. The internet arrived and democratised knowledge and enabled it to be spread and shared outside ivyclad brick buildings, closed societies and privileged elites.
The business schools saw an opportunity and moved in to capture a gap in the market — executive education. This segment flourished and expanded from the classic MBA to executive (part-time) MBAs, while bespoke corporate education packages ensured professors enjoyed a lucrative speaker career, while also filling their bags with case studies and material for management articles. The schools chased world ranking lists while the professors chased citations and book deals. Alas, they fell prey to the same internet disruption.
But in all fairness, it wasn’t only the democratisation of information and education that burst the bubble, it was also the escalating costs, the institutions’ lack of innovation, the inflated titles, the abundance of fake university degrees and the growing gap between taught skills and actual skills needed. The universities failed to innovate, the business schools soon ran out of new ways to (re)organise companies, and their customers (the students) found new, faster and cheaper ways to acquire the skills they needed.
The demise started in the late 2010s and accelerated with the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT in the early 2020s. Students and corporates woke up to a world where a couple of weeks on YouTube, a week of Ted Talks, and a few massive open online courses (MOOC) replaced an MBA taking over a year and costing north of US$100,000. And the best thing? You could refresh your skills every year for next to nothing.
Today, the ancient halls of universities, once filled with vibrant young minds, are occupied by self-employed and bewildered professors coaching a handful of highly intelligent and self-motivated specialised researchers. /First published in Mindbullets May 9 2024
SCHOOL’S OUT FOREVER
July 11 2030
Remember when teachers heaved a sigh of relief when they heard the news “school’s out for summer” and they could enjoy their holiday? Now school’s out — completely.
Granted, basic formal education is still a good idea for young kids, who need to learn life skills, like how to handle things when our smart devices misbehave, but what’s the point of congregating at a physical site, just to be told what you already know, by someone who’s not necessarily as smart as you? That’s “old school” for sure.
We have for years now been “augmenting” our learning with hitech toys connected to the cloud, and some of the more progressive places have been experimenting with the dialectic method, allowing kids to do their own research, then debating differing views in class. Some schools even operate virtual classrooms, where the discussions are conducted by holocam, and the learners might be anywhere, at home or at the cabin by the lake.
But it’s not 2020 any more. Truly savvy educators realise that learning is a lifelong thing, and the sooner we get out there and start doing, while learning along the way, the better our chances are to succeed, in an exponential future.
That’s the better method, and tech is letting us do it. Pervasive computing, the unseen mesh of smart devices and sensors, embedded in everyday objects — what dad used to call “the thinking web” or the “internet of thinking things ”— is providing us with a constant flow of stimuli to get our brains working and thinking for themselves.
It’s subtle, but it works. Learning by doing is so effective. And anyway, if I need to know something I hardly need to ask; Alexa or Alpha always have the right answer. So I guess school’s out, forever. /First published in Mindbullets July 12 2018