Tue 5 May 2009
Parker on Taylor
Posted by David under Mark Taylor at 6:13 am
Mark Taylor’s op-ed generated this commentary from Randall Parker:
Consider, the cost of cars isn’t going up as fast as the overall rate of inflation while universities are hiking their prices faster than the rate of education. Then there’s quality. Detroit’s made huge strides in improving quality.
The online realm is causing a collapse in printed newspaper circulation. Well, it is only a matter of time until online education starts making substantial inroads into live bricks-and-mortar education.
I see signs and indications that online education will take off and some colleges will get converted to commercial office buildings or other uses.
Online education will take off but I am not sure that this will have meaningful impact on Williams. First, there will always be rich parents who want to send their children to Williams and 18-year-olds who want to go. Second, the more that Williams gets rid of lectures, the less likely that anyone would imagine that a Williams education can be replicated on-line.
The tutorial program is our key comparative advantage. We should continue to expand it.
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2 Responses to “Parker on Taylor”
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Anon '89er says:
At least on-line education does not offer the opportunity to take part in a pandemic. Amherst finally confirmed two cases of swine flu last night.
http://www.boston.com/news/health/blog/2009/05/eight_students.html
Note the mischievous comments by Ephs…
Vermando '05 says:
Interesting to consider in light of disruptive technology theory. Certainly Williams is under no short-term threat from these technologies, but at some point the they will be good enough to undermine the value proposition. While I am sure we will always treasure tutorials, I doubt we’d give $40,000 and 4 years of our lives if we could get a substantially similar product (including job opportunities) for much less.
Still, decidedly a long-term issue. It’s good to keep our eyes on the horizon, but it seems like we’ll have plenty of time to react before this one catches up with us.