Wake Up Call: Traditional University System

Have you ever heard the alarm clock from what seemed to be a deep slumber? Then, it startles you awake. Such is the case for post-secondary education in the United States.

The alarm has been going off for a while now. From staggering student loan debt to fixation on amenities instead of 21st-century learning practices to growing unemployment of graduates, the traditional (4 years BA/BS degree on brick/mortar college campus) university system may become superfluous within the next 15 years.

The vast majority of universities still use a system and traditions born in the Middle Ages. Instead of re-defining and adjusting to current needs, some universities are positioning themselves to maintain Western educational hegemony by creating “Mini-Me’s” around the world. This short-sighted action is in perfect step with the long-standing structural norms of education.

Here’s another reason why the conventional university system is in peril. The number of international students with tertiary degrees is exploding and will completely dominate the post-secondary landscape by 2030. China and India alone will make up 50% of all graduates.

Although entrepreneurship and innovation are making toeholds in China and India, their monolithic, hierarchical educational systems are deeply ingrained within the culture and family structure. It is far more likely these countries will continue to grind out similar graduates in alignment with current Western universities.

Plus high paying knowledge-based jobs are no longer safe. Throughout the modern age, universities have churned out accountants, architects, and lawyers who securely earned their way to financial success. Artificial intelligence is changing the professional world — rapidly. There is a significant impact on the medical world too. Co-founder of Sun Microsystems, Vinod Khosla, has predicted that robots may one day replace 80% of doctors. There is an alternative view to Khosla’s prediction but it is clear that technological advances will have an increasingly profound impact on the future of work.

Students need more flexibility in developing their own learning and alternative pathways to credentials. Despite heavy pressure around standardized testing and narrow university admission policies, K-12 systems are adapting to more real-world teaching, assessing, and learning approaches. Universities should look closely at these changes and provide more skills-based and work-study experiences. This would add real value to the higher education experience. There may be small pockets of change but a culture shift is still too far on the horizon, if at all.

The industrial university era is no longer the driver of learning. Time to innovate or students will hack their own education and un-school themselves into future work life. Motivated learners will not wait for change.

The alarm is still ringing. Hitting the snooze button is a bad idea.