There’s an education bubble, which is, like the others, psychosocial. There’s a wide public buy-in that leads to a product being overvalued because it’s linked to future expectations that are unrealistic. Education is similar to the tech bubble of the late 1990s, which assumed crazy growth in businesses that didn’t pan out. The education bubble is predicated on the idea that the education provided is incredibly valuable. In many cases that’s just not true. Here and elsewhere people have avoided facing the fact of stagnation by telling themselves stories about familiar things leading to progress. One fake vector of progress is credentialing—first the undergraduate degree, then more advanced degrees. Like the others, it’s an avoidance mechanism.
i don’t always agree with Peter but he’s spot on about education
A Conversation with Peter Thiel – The American Interest Magazine (via pegobry)
Paul Higgins: This is a big issue for something which is seen as a long term investment. As career changes and job changes have become more frequent the value of the initial piece of paper has reduced. I think that value for fundamental skills education with a bit of paper on the end of it will continue to have value. However the rise in “just in time” skills transfer, the creation of all sorts of new jobs in a rapidly changing world, and multiple sources and channels for education are rapidly devaluing the specific skill qualification.
(via emergentfutures)