A Farewell to Campus

I believe that higher-learning institutions, such as colleges and universities, have become obsolete. These institutions were founded on the principle of uniting eager students with knowledgeable professors, vast libraries, and other academic resources. With the accessibility of the internet, however, this principle is dead. The internet contains more learning than any single institute could hope to hold, is accessible to anyone from any part of the world, and is more affordable than any single textbook. Current students are crippled by debt. This debt is accrued from paying for the costs associated with a physical campus - a beautiful lawn, or perhaps a new addition to a college to which they don't even belong. Internet-based universities dramatically reduce the cost of learning and level the playing field for anyone interested in higher learning. It is my position that we, as a society, need embrace the internet as a platform for higher learning and discard the idea of physical institutions for learning.