A View of the Future

The way higher education works has fairly been constant for more than a hundred years. With advances in technology as well as changing demands from society, there is a growing impression that colleges are about to change. Whether universities would indeed change still remains up in the air. Stanford University, for instance, has compiled several possible shifts. The design team has chosen to exhibit four scenarios: Open Loop University, Paced Education, Axis Flip, and Purpose learning. Open Loop means 6 years of study distributed over a lifetime. Paced Education also requires 6 years, but distributed in three different phases. Axis Flip places skills above content knowledge. Lastly, Purpose Learning throws out Majors and embraces Missions instead. Of the four, I personally think Open Loop is likeliest to happen:

Copied from Stanford 2025 - Open Loop University

What is in store for universities in the future largely depends on our views of what higher education should be. To read more about these various future visions of a university, visit Stanford 2025.