Dive Brief:
- A recent panel of academics and startup executives agreed that higher education will change because "the status quo is not an option."
- Zach Sims, founder of Codecademy, says more students will demand practical skills over a traditional liberal arts education.
- Clay Shirky, a writer-in-residence at NYU, says future universities won't look like they do today — but they won't look like MOOCS either, which he says are too close to notorious for-profit school models.
Dive Insight:
Sims' prediction lines up with Sebastian Thrun's moving Udacity toward more vocational training. One thread that seemed to run through many of the panelists' predictions was that the old concept of a large brick-and-mortar university where many students come in person for a general education may be a dying breed. Shirky may have put it best: "If universities went away today, tomorrow, no one would say, 'Hey, you know what we need?' And come up with something that looks exactly like a university."
