"The Shape of (Academic) Things to Come"

Peter Wood looks at higher education in 2030. A lot of colleges and universities have closed . . .

As with military base closings forty years earlier, the dissolution of college campuses generally proved to be a huge boon for local and regional economies. Some became entertainment complexes catering to America’s main international industry, casino gambling. Many became assisted living facilities for the elderly. Several proved readily adaptable to youth detention centers and low-security prisons.  But the campus-repurposing movement flourishes with off-beat ideas. A major Hollywood studio bought one whole campus for shooting period films. Another was converted to a large-scale commercial mushroom farm, and its dimly lit lecture halls now sport row upon row of Porcinis, Shiitakes, and Portabellas where students once, perhaps somewhat less attentively than the aspiring fungi, sat IMing each other and playing Minesweeper.

Comments

[kyle8]

The close down of campus is only a reflection of demographics.

The end of the baby boomers left ever falling birth rates and for a while that was offset by higher requirements in many jobs for diplomas. And also, the desire by many boomers to pad their resume's with extra degrees.

But that could only last so long. The people who have been replacing older Americans in the work force are mostly immigrants who do not seek degrees in anything like the numbers of those who are third generation and above.

[JorgXMcKie]

Haven't read anything that funny in a while. I wouldn't mind that being the actual future, and I teach at a University.

I think, in many ways, higher education has lost its way. It's unfortunate, but unless we rediscover it, the scenario described is not really all that unlikely.