Half of All Universities to Go Out of Business in 10 Years?

Michael Horn, co-author with Clayton Christensen of several studies and publications on education, predicts: "I wouldn't be surprised if in 10 to 15 years half of the institutions of higher education will have either merged or gone out of business." According to Christensen, this change will not seriously threaten exclusive top-brand universities like Harvard and Yale, given the perceived high value of their brands and the connections and other extras they provide. Public universities, however, are in for a real shock. _NationalAffairs

Al Fin education analysts say that Harvard and Yale will be very much threatened by the coming revolution in education -- from K-12 through post-grad. By the time they and other overpriced palaces of mediocrity understand the hole they have dug for themselves, it will likely be too late.

But Christensen is correct when he says that US states will be devastated by the education revolution. Already forced to slash budgets and raise tuition, when the full impact of their dilemma hits them, heads will roll. A large part of the bloodshed will be caused by public sector union pension explosions and the state employee pension explosion.

As state budgets come under increasing pressure, tuition costs are likely to continue growing and services at state schools are likely to be slashed further by hard-pressed legislatures. California, for instance, hiked in-state tuition by 21% this year; over the next few years, the University of California system envisions annual tuition increases ranging from 8% to 16%. Other states face similarly grim prospects.

And the problem is only exacerbated by public universities' politicized governance structures — which, when combined with the state schools' lack of endowments to rival private universities', makes it much more difficult for public schools to adjust and innovate in response to changing conditions and competition. Those looking for signs of the coming revolution in higher education would thus be wise to keep their eyes on America's bloated public universities. _National Affairs

The article linked above is interesting, but it is largely beside the point. The reason for that is political correctness -- the author cannot come out and say what needs to be said about higher education and educational institutions in the post-modern world.

Outside of particular circumscribed areas of education -- professional schools, schools of engineering and science, business schools, etc. -- universities are no longer places of education, but are rather centres of indoctrination. Professors and administrators grasp onto tenure, bloat their own departments, assure their own futures, and to hell with students and their needs, and the long term vitality and survivability of the institution.

Affirmative action stuffs classrooms with students destined to fail bitterly. Title IX type mandates devastate economic opportunities formerly available to gifted athletes -- diverting the funds to feminist causes. Student loan debt across the US is greater than all credit card debt, and continues to grow -- although destined to burst in a huge conflagration of default.

Universities exist primarily for the vultures who feed upon failed students' carcasses. The various interlocking infrastructure of government, education, finance, and labour which have brought things to their current stage of impending doom.

The revolution could not come too soon.