End of College (starts at 52:07)

End of College (starts at 52:07)

Top of Mind with Julie Rose

Defending Disruption, End of College

Episode: Defending Disruption, End of College

  • Apr 1, 2016 9:00 pm
  • 51:48 mins

Guest: Kevin Carey directs the education policy program at the New America Foundation and authored the 2015 book, “The End of College: Creating the Future of Learning and the University of Everywhere.” Getting a college degree is more important than it’s ever been to finding success in the American economy. And yet, for at least 100 years, very little about the process of getting a college degree has changed. Prospective students take standardized tests, wait for an acceptance letter, move to the college, live with other students and sit in classrooms full-time for at least four years in order in order to get a diploma. Kevin Carey says there’s little about that system makes sense today. Who says that four years is the optimal time to master a subject? And does sitting in a huge auditorium being talked at by a professor really amount to effective learning? Kevin Carey directs education policy at the New America Foundation. In his book titled, “The End of College,” he argues – not unlike Harvard’s Clayton Christensen – that technology is about to transform higher education in radical ways. Kevin Carey says the reason it hasn’t happened yet is because of accreditation policies and government regulation that have meant only diplomas from certain institutions matter. .