Bill Gates Says the Internet Will Make Make Colleges and Universities Obsolete

Bill Gates: Internet to Make Universities Obsolete

August 9, 2010

Tom's Guide US - Can't get into that high-level university? Soon you may be able to get the equivalent, and better, on the Internet for free.

During the Techonomy conference held in Lake Tahoe, California, Bill Gates predicted that the traditional means of getting a higher education at universities--especially the place-based institutions--will dramatically change over the next five years.

"Five years from now on the web for free you'll be able to find the best lectures in the world," he said. "It will be better than any single university."

A good deal of knowledge could be gained from the Internet given that students are self-motivated learners. Gates offered an even broader opinion that students young and old should be credited for their gained knowledge no matter the source--whether it's from the Internet or earned through an MIT degree--and a means to "highlight" those credits.

But Gates didn't diminish the role of education institutions for students K-12. He reportedly spoke "glowingly" about charter schools where children spend up to 80-percent of their time getting an education.

Instead, he was more concerned about the post high school graduate, stating that colleges need to be less "place-based." He also pointed out two major problems with the college system: the cost and level of difficulty in gaining entry to the upper-level institutions, and the overall size of the text books.

"They're giant, intimidating books," he said. "I look at them and think: what on Earth is in there?"

He pointed out that the equivalent books in Asia are three times smaller, yet the United States is far less superior in many ways with education. He concluded that the only way to get control over and expand education is to embrace technology.

Bill Gates: Forget University, the Web is the Future for Education

August 7, 2010

Geek.com - Bill Gates attended the Technonomy conference earlier this week, and had quite a bold statement to make about the future of education. He believes the web is where people will be learning in five years from now, not colleges and university.

During his chat he said:

Five years from now on the web for free you’ll be able to find the best lectures in the world. It will be better than any single university

His argument as to why this will happen are two-fold. On the one hand university has become far too expensive for students with little funding to attend, costing on average $50,000 per year for 4 years. It is therefore harder to achieve an education at university level.

On the other, he believes text books in the West are far too intimidating for many students. He also points out that students in Asia are outperforming the West, and their books are a third of the size of ours.

Gates’ reasoning is based on the assumption that education away from the classroom should count as credit. So if MIT release courses on the web, a student should be able to study them at home and get credit for doing so. And the cost? He believes the $50,000 a year university education could be done via the web for as little as $2,000.

Here’s an excerpt from his chat at Techonomy:



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