Gigaom AI Minute – October 4

Transcript

Our university system is a 12th century French creation. Little has changed since its invention. Tuition, scholarships, tenure, majors, lectures, tests, and grades have all been around since the first universities. Some schools still use the same robes and have diplomas printed in Latin. And yet, somehow the university has survived without change through the following: the black death, war, the Renaissance, the inquisition, Frederick the Great, Napoleon, two world wars, Nazism, communism, disaster after disaster, economic calamity upon economic calamity, purges and scourges. And yet the university system glided right through it.

The resiliency of this system bespeaks of a deep need it must fill, for institutions don’t survive through all of that unchanged unless they are of unparalleled importance. So I am not one who is bearish on the university system. It should be noted that universities are not trade schools. Somebody leaving with a liberal arts degree isn’t trained for any job in particular. The conventional wisdom is that they are trained to think for themselves and to learn new things. If this is true, these are skills that you still need in the coming decades.