At the end of this month my eldest daughter starts university. She's doing a science degree, majoring in microbiology and immunology & genetics, with the aim of doing a PhD in microbiology and evolutionary development. I think I got that right…
I also, recently looked at courses in photography for my younger daughter, who is still within the age range for school and, in theory, free education. However, the education department only covers courses up to certificate 3 and the photography courses start at certificate 4. It’s classed as university level (even though it really isn't), so you'd need to pay full fees which amount to the same as you'd pay for a full time degree course, without the full time subsidy.
Something I discovered, while looking into the fees for the photography courses was that there was an enrollment fee for LinkedIn Learning. I'd heard of LinkedIn before, but wasn’t aware of there being a learning side to it, so off I went to look into that. I discovered it's a site which offers courses for a monthly fee at a mere fraction of what I'd need to pay for the course at the university and once you join you get access to any course that they offer and they offer a huge range. You can get certificates for completing the courses, but they aren't accredited. Yet if official courses utilise this service, then they must be of suitable quality.
If we're really honest, photography is something that is demonstrable via the actual proof of work you produce, so it doesn't really feel like an accredited certificate is even that necessary. My daughter is now learning lots about photography and improving rapidly from watching the videos on LinkedIn Learning and videos on YouTube. Who needs to pay for expensive education when you can do this?
Due to where her birthday fell, my eldest is starting university in semester two. It means that some of the courses she needs special permission to do, because she will have missed the introduction for them. She's gained permission and now she's registered, she's been able to access all the course material for the first semester, to make sure she's caught up and ready for semester two. Along with the course work come recommendations for Khan Academy videos which will support this course work. So even university is using YouTube!?
It makes you start to wonder if there's even any point in paying for university if we can go online and learn just as well. Eldest is now currently using youngest’s LinkedIn account to do some extra studies along with Khan Academy and various YouTube videos and websites.
You hear stories of people who've faked qualifications to get employment and have gone on to do well in that job for years to come. The knowledge and ability are there, they just didn't have the money for the course, maybe. Let's be honest, few employers even check certificates and if they do, do they know what they're looking at well enough to tell it's fake?
My daughter read an article a while ago about a surgeon in Africa who was arrested for practicing without a license or training after 100% success rate on the surgeries he'd completed. This may not be true, but it certainly makes you think. Many years ago, all our learning was hands on and taught on the job by experienced mentors. There was no such thing as certification. Now we have the opportunity to learn just about anything we want from the internet.
So could university become obsolete?
I think university still has its has place, at least for certain subjects. They have the facilities for hands on work that the students might need, equipment for experiments and guidance of the faculty for when there are questions that can't be answered online. For things like medical PhDs there will be the hands on practical experience of things to be learnt onsite, which you can't get from watching a video or reading from a website and when it comes to things like that I’d rather be in the hands of someone who has some practical experience behind them and not just theory.
Then for certain jobs there are the education level requirements that you need the certificate for. I’m pretty sure these things could be easily checked online, these days, so faking it might not be so easy now, unless you're an amazing hacker. You are also more likely to be able to make connections for career pathways through the university. So I'm not about to pull my daughter out of university now. I also know that degrees are requirements for a lot of jobs and a PhD would be something that would make her stand out among a population where a lot of people have degrees and many even have two.
I believe that learning many things from the internet is certainly viable and it may even be taking some custom away from universities. Recently my daughter was able to fix our computer after a dodgy windows update ruined the CPU, all from looking at YouTube videos, visiting forums and searching online for the cost of $75 and a bottle of bourbon. She's enjoyed the learning experience, learnt for free and saved us a big repair bill. It's also given us the kick up the butt to convert to Linux.
There are, of course, issues which come up with learning this way. You'd probably need to cross check from multiple sources to make sure what you're learning is accurate. There is also no way to prove your knowledge short of demonstrating it. Then for employers it's probably much easier to just check for the certificate to prove your proficiency than have you demonstrate it.
It’s a debate that could go on and on…
This is my response to the @ecotrain Question of the Week