The comments the article linked to below bring back to
mind:
John Templeton (June 2005): “Most of the methods of universities and
other schools, which require residence, have become hopelessly obsolete.
Probably, over half of the universities in the world will disappear as quickly
in the next 30 years.” (LINK)
Clayton Christensen (June 2013): “Historically there has never been
competition on the basis of price. Colleges would compete by adding professors,
enhancing programmes or building nicer facilities. So they competed by making
institutions better. This initiates retribution [from other colleges] which
make things better and better. And every step adds cost. So the cost of higher
education has increased faster than healthcare. And there just isn't any more
space in the budget to do this. So this year you are seeing, in a fixed cost
environment, that colleges need to fill all their spaces. And there are fewer
people applying. So this year for the first time there is real competition on
price. For online universities, like Liverpool and the University of Phoenix,
if prices drop by 60% they still make money. But for the vast majority of
traditional universities, if the prices fall by 10% they are bankrupt; they
have no wriggle room. So I'd be very surprised if in ten years we don't see
hundreds of universities in bankruptcy.” (LINK)