There is a great deal of talk about a ÒtransformationÓ taking place in post-secondary education, linked to changes in the nature of work, technology, and the challenge of financing education at a time of austerity. The New York based journalist, Thomas Friedman, for example, writing in the New York Times in January 2013, imagined a different future for colleges and universities:ÒI can see a day soon where youÕll create your own college degree by taking the best online courses from the best professors from around the world Ñ some computing from Stanford,some entrepreneurship from Wharton, some ethics from Brandeis, some literature from Edinburgh Ñ paying only the nominal fee for the certificates of completion.Ó
It is through these market based mechanisms - the thinking goes - that colleges and universities will be transformed. HeÕs still dreaming the world is flat, he can dream on.