The higher education sector is struggling to provide quality services despite fewer resources and governments around the world are insisting that colleges and universities find new revenue sources. What would higher education look like of the sector adopted some business modules from the web and computer companies?
Well first of all a basic university education would be free for everyone. Students could attend classes for free, but if they wanted to actually speak to a professor they would have to pay. These support sessions could be paid for on a single incident basis, or students could subscribe to a premium support service that allowed them to talk to a professor whenever they wanted. Only the basic course content would be free. Students would have to pay to unlock the advanced levels. Good students could earn gold stars by getting good test scores and by attending class regularly. Students could sell their gold stars online and weak students could buy gold stars for cash. Tests would be difficult, but students would be able to purchase power-ups to make them easier. Cheat sheets would be available, but at a price. Students would constantly be bombarded by targeted advertising. But they could pay to make the advertising go away. Professors wouldn’t actually know students’ names, but they would know everything else about them. Their eating habits, reading habits, web surfing history, and social interactions would all be logged and sold to marketing companies. Students could earn extra gold stars by telling all their Facebook friends how great the course is.