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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday September 05 2018, @10:36AM   Printer-friendly
from the will-Harvard-be-one-of-them? dept.

CNBC:

There are over 4,000 colleges and universities in the United States, but Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen says that half are bound for bankruptcy in the next few decades.

Christensen is known for coining the theory of disruptive innovation in his 1997 book, "The Innovator's Dilemma." Since then, he has applied his theory of disruption to a wide range of industries, including education.

In his recent book, "The Innovative University," Christensen and co-author Henry Eyring analyze the future of traditional universities, and conclude that online education will become a more cost-effective way for students to receive an education, effectively undermining the business models of traditional institutions and running them out of business.

What percentage of their graduates will be bankrupt?


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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by pinchy on Wednesday September 05 2018, @11:10AM (30 children)

    by pinchy (777) on Wednesday September 05 2018, @11:10AM (#730683) Journal

    I read that some of these campuses where the leftists have run amok in the news have lost huge enrollment numbers.
    Apparently its impacting their bottom line. IIRC Jonathan Haidt predicted that would be a correcting force for far leftist campuses.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 05 2018, @11:23AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 05 2018, @11:23AM (#730687)

    reading did not seem to trigger thought in you.
    nothing has a single cause and authorities just want to eat you.
    ponder that :)

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 05 2018, @12:34PM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 05 2018, @12:34PM (#730713)

      reading did not seem to trigger thought in you.

      Well, nothing will, why do you think reading is so special?

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 05 2018, @01:08PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 05 2018, @01:08PM (#730745)

        reading encourages both of your brain's hemispheres to have multichannel conversations across your corpus callossum(sp?) usually leading to something individuated happening in your frontal cortex we refer to as thinking. you can also produce the effect by working out how to talk to your voice-recording phone without repeating yourself. if you do this until you have nothing more floating around in your brain.. from 20..90mins should do it, with practice anyhow, you'll see that you have in fact produced some actual thought, restructured your brain and cleaned out an inner stack of stuff that would otherwise hobble your perceptions going forward. -- if you debrief yourself like this on everything, your learning/thinking/processing speed/memory-recall and capacity for directed visual thinking will go through the roof.

        so much for 'nothing triggers thought.' hah.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 05 2018, @03:34PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 05 2018, @03:34PM (#730782)

          Could you cite this? I would like to learn more if it isn't bullshit.

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by canopic jug on Wednesday September 05 2018, @11:45AM (16 children)

    by canopic jug (3949) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 05 2018, @11:45AM (#730694) Journal

    Some universities also have a lot of dead wood. That is to say they have loads of staff and executives that have nothing to do with either teaching or research or direct support of either. "Diversity" executives pull in 6-figure salaries and herd a triple-digit sized team all the while libraries wither, labs go uncleaned, and senior faculty members are forced to act as amateur secretaries instead of using their hours in their domain of expertise. Or rather than operating a high-speed, low-drag ICT infrastructure, there are Microsoft and Oracle resellers running amok and setting the agenda and the budgets, starving teaching or research of resources.

    --
    Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Kell on Wednesday September 05 2018, @12:53PM (14 children)

      by Kell (292) on Wednesday September 05 2018, @12:53PM (#730724)

      Diversity executives, eh? So, you don't actually work at a university then, I take it?

      --
      Scientists ask questions. Engineers solve problems.
      • (Score: 5, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday September 05 2018, @01:02PM (13 children)

        by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Wednesday September 05 2018, @01:02PM (#730738) Homepage Journal

        University Diversity Officer
        Page 1 of 1,942 jobs [indeed.com]

        Damn those pesky contradictory facts!

        --
        My rights don't end where your fear begins.
        • (Score: 5, Informative) by Kell on Wednesday September 05 2018, @02:28PM (12 children)

          by Kell (292) on Wednesday September 05 2018, @02:28PM (#730763)

          Officer != executive. That's like saying a sergeant is the same as a general. I challenge you to find me even a dozen of those 2000 odd jobs that will be bringing in "six figures". So much for your "pesky contradictory facts"!

          The university senior executive level* is so far removed from anything those people would be doing that it's a major coup if any of them even show up to an event. I should know, I'm part of our diversity network . At our university, all but one of the senior exec is white male, and only two or three out of a dozen deans are female. It's been recognised as a major issue both here and elsewhere in Australia.

          *Not that our university's have "executives" so much as provosts, deans, chancellors and the like.

          --
          Scientists ask questions. Engineers solve problems.
          • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 05 2018, @03:14PM (6 children)

            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 05 2018, @03:14PM (#730777)
            • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday September 05 2018, @04:33PM (1 child)

              by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Wednesday September 05 2018, @04:33PM (#730801) Homepage Journal

              Muchos grassy ass, me amoeba. I was out paying bills, visiting contractors, and picking up tools for remodeling the place TR just purchased and in no position to respond.

              --
              My rights don't end where your fear begins.
              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 05 2018, @07:20PM

                by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 05 2018, @07:20PM (#730907)

                de nalgas

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 05 2018, @10:45PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 05 2018, @10:45PM (#730997)

              That list is mostly female. Must be a side channel way of evening up the university’s diversity employment.

            • (Score: 2) by Kell on Wednesday September 05 2018, @11:26PM (2 children)

              by Kell (292) on Wednesday September 05 2018, @11:26PM (#731013)

              Interesting! I'll happily concede that my expectations were different from this! Thank you for the additional information. The hiring geography in the US must be different to Australia - In contrast, here diversity officers would be lucked to pull a median wage of $60k.

              --
              Scientists ask questions. Engineers solve problems.
              • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday September 06 2018, @12:28AM (1 child)

                by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Thursday September 06 2018, @12:28AM (#731043) Homepage Journal

                Our higher ed administrative staff are both grossly inflated in numbers and grossly overpaid at the moment, yup.

                --
                My rights don't end where your fear begins.
                • (Score: 3, Informative) by Reziac on Thursday September 06 2018, @02:43AM

                  by Reziac (2489) on Thursday September 06 2018, @02:43AM (#731109) Homepage

                  Meanwhile, my sister (who is a high-end STEM professional) gripes that she can no longer find qualified graduates in her field, and that apparently some basic functions are no longer being taught at all. She leads an annual raiding party on her alma mater (which is rather less converged than the norm), and still comes up short.

                  --
                  And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
          • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday September 07 2018, @12:15PM (4 children)

            by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Friday September 07 2018, @12:15PM (#731725) Homepage
            Executive: a person or group of persons having administrative or supervisory authority in an organization
            Officer: a person who has an important position in a company, organization, or government

            The people he's talking about, which may have "Officer" in their job title, do indeed have administrative authority, often supervisory too, and therefore are executives as the word is used in the English language.

            I've known 25-year-olds to have "Senior" in their job-title. Job titles are meaningless, if you are getting hung up over them, then you're looking at the wrong things.
            --
            Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
            • (Score: 2) by Kell on Saturday September 08 2018, @10:26AM (3 children)

              by Kell (292) on Saturday September 08 2018, @10:26AM (#732126)

              That is not the case in academia (at least where I live), where titles are very specifically controlled by the organisation. To the point that being an associate professor vs as senior lecturer entitles you to 3 m^2 more office space (seriously! 13 m^2 vs 16 m^2).

              --
              Scientists ask questions. Engineers solve problems.
              • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Sunday September 09 2018, @03:27AM (1 child)

                by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Sunday September 09 2018, @03:27AM (#732383) Homepage
                so if they moved to a bigger building, they'd have to promote everybody?
                --
                Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
                • (Score: 2) by Kell on Sunday September 09 2018, @09:12AM

                  by Kell (292) on Sunday September 09 2018, @09:12AM (#732423)

                  Nope - they cram in as many full-fee paying internationals as possible (packed dense) to maximise profit on their already overstressed faculty.

                  --
                  Scientists ask questions. Engineers solve problems.
              • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday September 10 2018, @03:17AM

                by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Monday September 10 2018, @03:17AM (#732646) Homepage
                since when has "very specifically controlled by the organisation" meant "having universal unambiguous interpretation"?
                --
                Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Wednesday September 05 2018, @02:43PM

      by Thexalon (636) on Wednesday September 05 2018, @02:43PM (#730768)

      What is definitely true is that the big explosion in spending by universities isn't on anything involving education, but on administration. Some of that is BS like creating pointless bureaucratic positions, like you mentioned, but a lot more of it is trying to build a detailed management infrastructure to really put the screws on all those friggin' professors who think they're so smart they should be running the place.

      One of the many pieces of putting the screws on the faculty is the decades-long process of replacing tenured and tenure-track professors with adjunct instructors who are paid peanuts and can be removed and replaced at any time for any reason. And that in turn requires making the jobs of tenured/tenure-track professors as unpleasant as possible, so that they'll retire or move to other institutions.

      --
      The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by VLM on Wednesday September 05 2018, @01:08PM

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 05 2018, @01:08PM (#730744)

    Apparently its impacting their bottom line. IIRC Jonathan Haidt predicted that would be a correcting force for far leftist campuses.

    Dying industries always go hard left; can debate the exact cause/effect relationship later. However if its a far left industry or a dying industry the correlation is always high. Newspapers, legacy TV news, legacy media, NFL, higher ed... If its dying its probably left wing, if its left wing its probably dying, on a civilization wide basis.

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Taibhsear on Wednesday September 05 2018, @02:58PM (7 children)

    by Taibhsear (1464) on Wednesday September 05 2018, @02:58PM (#730771)

    I read that some of these campuses where the leftists have run amok in the news have lost huge enrollment numbers.

    Yes, and it has nothing to do with Republican politicians cutting funding for said schools and trying to bust unions and fucking the economy so no one can afford to go to school without going into un-bankruptable dept because of rising tuition because of said budget cuts or anything... /sarc

    • (Score: 2, Disagree) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday September 05 2018, @04:38PM (6 children)

      by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Wednesday September 05 2018, @04:38PM (#730802) Homepage Journal

      Higher ed schools should never have been govt funded to begin with. If they can't make ends meet off of the absurd amounts they charge, they are astoundingly poorly managed.

      Also, anyone taking out a student loan for a degree that isn't nearly certain to make every bit of it back for them in five years is a colossal fucking moron.

      --
      My rights don't end where your fear begins.
      • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 05 2018, @04:56PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 05 2018, @04:56PM (#730811)

        They're not morons. They Learned How to Learn, after all. It just so happens that they need someone else's help whenever they need to learn anything else.

        • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday September 05 2018, @05:43PM

          by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Wednesday September 05 2018, @05:43PM (#730840) Homepage Journal

          They also learned how to acquire massive debt that's immune to bankruptcy at a time when they have essentially no income. This is an extremely valuable lesson if we want to keep a thriving student loan industry in the nation.

          --
          My rights don't end where your fear begins.
      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Taibhsear on Wednesday September 05 2018, @06:43PM (1 child)

        by Taibhsear (1464) on Wednesday September 05 2018, @06:43PM (#730892)

        Farmers should never have been govt funded to begin with. If they can't make ends meet off of the absurd amounts they charge, they are astoundingly poorly managed.

        Also, anyone taking out a loan for farming equipment that isn't nearly certain to make every bit of it back for them in five years is a colossal fucking moron.

      • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday September 07 2018, @12:19PM (1 child)

        by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Friday September 07 2018, @12:19PM (#731726) Homepage
        If they're charging collossal amounts, then yes, I agree. However, in the civilised western world, higher education, at least for nationals, is free, and yes, that system does require the government to be funding them. But what's so weird about a society that actively wants to encourage having an educated population?
        --
        Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
        • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday September 07 2018, @07:22PM

          by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Friday September 07 2018, @07:22PM (#731873) Homepage Journal

          But what's so weird about a society that actively wants to encourage having an educated population?

          Over here our higher ed industry by and large practices systematic indoctrination. You know, mandatory classes wherein you must be able to parrot back and argue effectively from the position of slightly dated radical propaganda or fail? Systemic suppression of thought and speech that run afoul of up to the minute radical propaganda? You're better off teaching yourself most subjects from readily available materials than going to college today. You'll certainly have a better financial position when you're finished.

          --
          My rights don't end where your fear begins.