Why go to University? MOOCs will change everything. Higher Education beware!

There are many reasons for going to university but, arguably the most important three reasons are:

1. To have a life experience: making the first steps to independence by living away from home, living with like-minded people.
2. To gain an Internationally recognised qualification, which will open doors into the job market.
3. To study - to learn skills and engage with a body of information.

British Universities have had it good for a long time, with successive Governments encouraging ever greater student numbers, but I suspect that the tide is about to turn. The arguments for going to university are not nearly as strong as they were in the past.

Going away to university is a luxury that not everyone can afford

There was a time when going to university was a privilege for a minority that was earned by gaining a good A-level grades and was paid for by the Government, who saw fit to invest in our 'brightest and best'. Those days are gone. Universities are now businesses operating in a competitive market place and they are far from free. According to the National Union of Students the true cost of being a student outside London is £22,189 each academic year (£10,133 for course costs £12,056 for living costs - for the full breakdown of these figures see the NUS website). Today's undergraduates are likely to leave university with £50,000+ debt (BBC Website: 'Average UK student debts 'could hit £53,000' 12/08/2011).

Going away to university to have a life experience increasingly is going to be an luxury that young people cannot afford. Although there is no evidence of this beginning to happen yet, it is likely that we will see more young people living at home, at least for part of their course.

Graduate Employment patterns are changing: almost half of recent graduates are working in non-graduate jobs:

According to the Office of for National Statistics, Graduates now comprise 38% of the adult population (up from 17% in 1992). The positive news is that graduates are more likely to be employed and less likely to be searching for work:

However this ignores a key factor that 47% of recent graduates are in employment, but in non-graduate roles:

The graduate employment market is increasingly competitive, with job prospects broadly being determined by the following three factors:

Whilst there remain significant rewards for those with First Class Honours (and even Upper Seconds) from top institutions, the reality is that a 2:2 in a Humanity from a middle ranking university will mean that your employment prospects are very limited. All of this begs the question if there will be any 'graduate premium' for a significant proportion of our university leavers, let alone whether or not it will be of a significant level to justify the investment of taking on the inevitable debt that will be incurred.

MOOCs will change everything

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are set to transform Higher Education. Imagine have Open University courses available free taught by the world's experts. The leading Universities around the world are making their courses (not just lectures!) available in online versions.  EdX brings some of the best courses from Harvard, MIT, Berkeley, McGill et al (full list of institutions here); Coursera a similarly distinguished body (full list of institutions here).  The following YouTube video gives a basic introduction to EdX:

At present the range of courses is limited, but it is only a matter of time before complete undergraduate programmes are available online.

MOOCs: Accreditation will be the battle ground of the next few years.

The only problem with MOOCs at the moment is that, although you can get a 'statement of accomplishment' for reaching the standard in each unit, the courses themselves are not accredited and don't count towards degrees. MOOCs are in effect the wedge that will separate a university's role as a provider of education and their function as a degree awarding institution. Hitherto these functions have been related - the university taught the course to its students, it examined them and it awarded them a degree. MOOCs change everything. MOOCs mean that an online student can do a course, learn the skills, assimilate the information and even be assessed. It rather begs the question why they can't be accredited for the work that they have done. 

FAQ from the Coursera course 'An Introduction to Financial Accounting'

We might even envisage a situation where a MOOC student has completed the first two years of a degree course online and then applies to transfer as a resident student into the third year of the undergraduate programme.  How will that university react?  How can it argue that the student hasn't reached the requisite standard? 

MOOC courses, Employers and Professional Bodies

A further complication is that employers or even Professional Bodies might accept MOOC courses, even though they are not accredited by Universities. Take, for example, the Coursera course 'An Introduction to Financial Accounting' taught by the University of Pennsylvania. Employers and the Institute of Chartered Accountants are likely to be more concerned that an applicant has mastered the principles of financial accounting than they have a shiny degree certificate. Indeed it is easy to see that they may be more impressed with the self-starter from a humble background who has shown the motivation to complete an online course over and above the resident undergraduate.

Conclusion The laws of supply and demand will hold sway and is that we are likely to see the top universities continuing to get stronger and the lesser universities falling by the wayside. I predict that

• there will be a flight to quality. Degrees from the top universities will always have a currency in the job market and there will always be sufficient numbers who will be willing to pay for that experience, education and qualification. Increasingly savvy students are likely to consider that it just isn't worth the debt studying esoteric courses or studying at lesser universities.
• increasing numbers of students will study living at home, perhaps going away to university for a year to have the experience
• an increasing minority will head to the big name universities in Europe which have lower entrance requirements (EE at A-level), lower fees (Universities are free in Germany) and which are increasingly offering courses delivered in English (in order to attract the Far East market). This is certainly the best option for the CCC candidate where the British alternatives are overpriced for the end value of the degree that they have to offer.

Accreditation of MOOC courses is going to be the real battle ground of the next couple of years and it is set to split Higher Education:  MOOCs pose no threat to universities who are in the top 50 in the world rankings. There will always be demand for these institutions' courses. Indeed these universities will drive the expansion of MOOCs to enhance their reputations worldwide. However MOOCs will pose a real threat not only to the Open University (why pay if you can study online from HarvardX for free?), but also to lesser British universities, who are likely to guard their degree-awarding powers jealously lest their residential numbers plummet.Ultimately this is out of their control. The top 50 universities will do what they will do - it is a competitive marketplace after all.  There is little doubt that MOOCs will be a significant catalyst for change in the whole structure of Higher Education around the world.

What School Sport teaches young people (especially girls).

The Value of School Sport

Independent Schools devote a significant proportion of the curriculum to sport; indeed, here at Berkhamsted pupils spend more time at Key Stage 3 each week playing games than they do learning mathematics. We do this because we believe that sport has true educational value. 

Hilary Levey Friedman, in her book Playing to Win: Raising Children in a Competitive Culture, identifies five ways in which sport develops important transferable skills:

1. Sport internalizes the importance of winning;
2. Sport helps young people to learn how to bounce back from a loss to win in the future;
3. Sport teaches the importance of performing within time limits;
4. Sport helps young people to learn how to succeed in stressful situations;
5. Sport teaches the importance of being able to perform under the gaze of others.

Girls, Sport, Success, Self-esteem and Body Image

A study by the Women's Sports Foundation (in the USA) found that:

1. High school girls who play sports are more likely to get better grades in school and more likely to graduate than girls who do not play sports. 
2. Girls and women who play sports have higher levels of confidence and self-esteem and lower levels of depression. 
3. Girls and women who play sports have a more positive body image and experience higher states of psychological well-being than girls and women who do not play sports. 

Girls, Sport and later Business Success

A survey of top women business executives published by the Oppenheimer Foundation in February 2013 discovered that 81% of top women business executives played organized team sports growing up.

When asked how playing team sport contributed to their business, they commented that,

1. Sport developed leadership skills, 
2. Sported engendered greater discipline, 
3. Sport developed the ability to function as part of a team

A final thought . . . 
One of the most important aspects of School Sport is the camaraderie that it brings. When Old Boys and Old Girls come back to school more often than not they end up reminiscing about their sporting triumphs. It was a great privilege a forthnight ago to sit between two 95 year-old Berkhamstedians at a special lunch. It was not long before they were talking about their days in the First XV - one played Full-back and the other Lock - and that was some 77 years ago, but just like yesterday to them!

References and Further Reading:

• Hilary Levey Friedman, Playing to Win: Raising Children in a Competitive Culture (September 2013)
• Hilary Levey Friedman, 'Do Your Kids Need More Competitive Capital?'  Harvard Business Review Blog 03/09/2013
• 'Benefits - Why Sports Participation for Girls and Women' Womens Sports Foundation
• 'Successful Women Business Executives Don't Just Talk a Good Game... They Play(ed) One'  Oppenheimer Foundation Report: (February 2013)

What does it mean to be an educated person?

A thought-provoking video:
(Thanks to New Stede for sharing this in their house assembly)

 

So you want to get a degree? Why?
Let me tell you what society would tell you. It increases your chances of getting a job, provides you with an opportunity to be successful, your life will be a lot less stressful, education is the key.
Now, let me tell you what your parents would tell you. "Make me proud", it increases your chances of getting a job, provides you with an opportunity to be successful, your life will be a lot less stressful, education is the key.

Now let’s look at the statistics, Steve Jobs - net worth $7 billion (R.I.P.); Richard Branson  - net worth $4.2 billion; Oprah Winfrey - net worth $2.7 billion; Mark Zuckerberg, Henry Ford, Steven Spielberg, Bill Gates now here comes the coup de grace.

Looking at these individuals, what’s your conclusion? Neither of them in being successful ever graduated from a higher learning institution, now some of you would protest like, "You know money isn't only the medium by which one measures worldly success," some of you even have the nerve to say, "I don’t do it for the money", so what are studying for? To work for a charity? Need more clarity?

Let’s look at the statistics, Jesus, Muhammed (pbuh), Socrates, Malcolm X, Mother Teresa, Spielberg, Shakespeare, Beethoven, Jesse Owens, Muhammad Ali, Sean Carter, Michael Jeffrey Jordan, Michael Joseph Jackson were either of these people unsuccessful or uneducated?

All I’m saying is that if there was a family tree, hard work and education would be related, but school would probably be a distant cousin . . .

If education is the key, then school is the lock. Because it rarely ever develops your mind to the point where it can perceive red as green and continue to go when someone else said "STOP", because as long as you follow the rules and pass the exams, you’re cool. But are you aware that examiners have a checklist? And if your answer is something outside of the box, the automatic response is a cross, and then they claim that school expands your horizons and your visions. Well, tell that to Malcolm X, who dropped out of school and is world renowned for what he learned in a prison.

Proverbs 17:16, "It does a fool no good to spend money on education," why? Because he has no common sense.
George Bush. Need I say more?

“Education is about inspiring one's mind not just filling their head.” And take this from me, because I’m a educated man myself, who only came to this realization after countless nights in the library with a can of Red Bull keeping me awake till dawn and another can in the morn, falling asleep in between piles of books which probably equates the same amount I’ve spent on my rent, memorize equations, facts and dates, right down to the letter, half of which I’d never remember, and half of which I'd forget straight after the exam, or before the start of the next semester, asking anyone if they had notes for the last lecture? I often found myself running to class, just so I could find the spot on which I could rest my head and fall asleep without making a scene, ironic because that’s the only time I ever spent in university of chasing my dreams.

And then after nights with a dead-mind; identifying myself in the queue of half awake student zombies waiting to hand in an assignment, maybe that’s why they call it a "dead-line". And then after three years of mental suppression and frustration, my proud mother didn't even turn up to my graduation.

Now I'm not saying that school is evil, and there’s nothing to gain, but all I’m saying is, understand your motives and reassess your aims, because if you want a job working for someone else, then help yourself. But then that would be a contradiction, because you wouldn’t have really be helping yourself, you’ll be helping somebody else; there’s a saying, which says, “If you don’t build your dream, someone else will hire you to help build theirs.”

Redefine, how you view education. Understand its true meaning. Education is not just about regurgitating facts from a book or someone else’s opinion on a subject to pass an exam. Look at it, Picasso was educated in creating art; Shakespeare was educated in the art of all that was written. Colonel Harland Sanders was educated in the art of creating Kentucky Fried Chicken.

I once saw David Beckham take a free kick. I watched as the side of his Adidas-sponsored boot hit the patent leather of the ball at angle which caused it to travel towards the skies as though it was destined for the heavens. And then as it reached the peak of its momentum, as though it changed its mind, it switched directions . . . I watched as the goalkeeper froze, as though reciting to himself the laws of physics, and as though his brain was negotiating with his eyes that was indeed witnessing the spectacle of the leather swan that was sweeping towards it, and then reacted. But only a fraction of a millisecond too late, and before the net of the goal embraced the FIFA-sponsored ball, as though it was the prodigal son returning home; and the country that I live in erupted into cheers. I look at the play, and thought, "Damn; looking at David Beckham, there is more than one way in this world to be an educated man."

"I will not let an exam result decide my fate . . . "  Suli Breaks, Vanity Fair 2009

And that David Beckham free kick: