If Colleges Are Dismantled, Consider the Impact on Their Cities
Everything today is being unbundled: television, hotels, even the European Union. Some education reformers would like the university to be next. Ryan Craig, author of College Disrupted: The Great Unbundling of Higher Education, argues that disaggregation of the university’s services is a positive and inevitable process that will make the university more efficient and accessible. Craig is not alone in seeking to parcel out a number of the university’s duties. Anant Agarwal of edX has argued that everything from admissions to food service to health care are extraneous to the institution’s central purpose. Information technology, through MOOCs or credit-bearing online courses, is key to achieving better, faster, and less costly course delivery. In the United States, online programs make university education accessible to working parents, the military, and other nontraditional students. Coursera’s new partnership with the State Department is extending that reach to refugees abroad. Much is to be gained, others have argued, from relegating to history the centuries-old association of higher education with time and place.