It is only a matter of time before Universities will radically change like the print or automobile industry today. It is inevitable. An article in the New York Times by Mark C. Taylor, the chairman of the religion department at Columbia, proposes to End the University as We Know It:
Further reading:“If American higher education is to thrive in the 21st century, colleges and universities, like Wall Street and Detroit, must be rigorously regulated and completely restructured. The long process to make higher learning more agile, adaptive and imaginative can begin with six major steps:
- Restructure the curriculum, beginning with graduate programs and proceeding as quickly as possible to undergraduate programs.
- Abolish permanent departments, even for undergraduate education, and create problem-focused programs.
- Increase collaboration among institutions. All institutions do not need to do all things and technology makes it possible for schools to form partnerships to share students and faculty.
- Transform the traditional dissertation.
- Expand the range of professional options for graduate students. Most graduate students will never hold the kind of job for which they are being trained.
- Impose mandatory retirement and abolish tenure”