Our College and University system in America grew up in opposition to the old European model.  Americans didn’t want to be locked in to specific training or apprenticeships.  We believed that the goal of education was to engage the mind in the realities of the world and so liberal arts education grew up. It  emphasized writing and speaking and creative endeavors in the pursuit of interests beyond the classroom.

Out of this came our great research Universities and things like the California Master Plan for education became the model.

Today, that process is about tests and admissions and loans and student aid and transfers and an insanely complex and arcane process that benefits the Sherpas that have to navigate us through it, but do little for the value of that education.

Just has technology has disrupted so much else, it is now reaching deep into higher education.  What it means is an open question, which we are now coming to grips with.  

Kevin Carey looks deeply into this moment, in his new book  The End of College: Creating the Future of Learning and the University of Everywhere.

My conversation with Kevin Carey: