Can Colleges Adapt/Change?

Read this article in The Economist that addresses that very question.

FWIW, I'm not optimistic about the ability of higher ed to adapt; or of the ability of Big Government to effect positive change (short of getting its nose out!).

The only Obamian hope/change that will actually lower costs is drastically reduced student lending from the government AND from government sponsored/subsidized institutions. I mean even in the inconceivable case that the Feds start reducing student loans....if the slack is taken up by the same Moronic banks that wrote trillions(?) of bad home loans these past several years it won't do any good.

And the only thing that will might improve teaching is for the Federal government to stop subsidizing research - *welfare for white/asian nerds*.

John Gatto's characterization:

...the organization of colleges around a scheme called "research" (which makes teaching an unpleasant inconvenience).

And research isn't merely wasteful spending.

Its worst aspect is that it effectively POLITICIZES public knowledge and information. And it's why these schools and their elitist denizens have become nothing short of bought-and-sold flacks for Bigger Government.

I predict that ultimately colleges will have adapt....about as well as newspapers adapted to the internet!