When we can let all this restart, and give the on-campus experience a chance to compete with the virtual, a generation that comes of age in the pandemic may not perceive the same value in the proximity my generation cherished. By the time the virus is contained, we may have raised a micro-generation of innate distancers. Even post-corona, and a return to proximity, the temporary elimination of the college experience will have catalyzed a question American households were afraid to ask: Is it worth it?

After a month taking classes at home, most students were likely desperate to get back to campus. After a year without the "traditional" college experience, plenty of people will begin to wonder how much they miss it, and what it's really worth.

Moreover, the need to rethink how campuses are utilized, and the injection of online tools into the college toolbox, is going to expand the notion of the college experience.

  • The US needs a Marshall Plan to partner with states to dramatically increase the number of seats at state schools while decreasing cost for four-year universities and junior colleges.
  • Tax private K–12 schools to supplement public K–12 education.
  • Endowments over $1 billion should be taxed if the university doesn't grow freshman seats at 1.5 times the rate of population growth.
  • A dean of a top-10 school needs to be a class traitor and reevaluate tenure so as to limit it to cases where it's truly needed to secure academic freedom, rather than the expensive and innovation-killing employment perk it has become.
  • We need firms (like Apple) to seize the greatest business opportunity in decades and open tuition-free universities that leverage their brand and their tech expertise to create certification programs (Apple in arts, Google in computer science, and Amazon in operations).
  • Gap years should be the norm, not the exception.
  • We need national service programs.
  • We fetishize a university degree, but for many it's prohibitively expensive and unnecessary.
  • Expanding the variety and efficiency of certification programs can not only retrain workers in dying industries, but can position a young person for a rewarding entrepreneurial career.

Read the full article about making higher education more accessible by Scott Galloway at Business Insider.