Unbundling and You
We have been talking for some time now about the coming unbundling of the K-12 education product. By unbundling, we mean the disaggregation of the standard curriculum into a set of parts that students (or their families) purchase a la carte in contrast to the prix fixe model that has dominated private education for centuries. This is from a recent piece in the Campus Matters blog:
Buying college used to be like buying cable – to get the degree you wanted, you had to buy courses, schedules and features you didn’t want. Higher education bundling requires additional payments without direct personal benefit, just like paying for 500 TV channels when all you want are local stations, ESPN and Comedy Central. Cable is still bundled, but the unbundling of higher education is gaining momentum.
The author, Michael Haggans, goes on to say:
Those who would have bought the full bundle now have the ability and financial incentive to make choices that undermine most academic business models. Introductory courses – and the profits they generate — are moving rapidly to online formats. As more students make non-bundle choices the justification of the traditional campus will be less clear.
Is the the beginning of the end for the liberal arts canon? Probably not, but it does portend what we have long predicted: that higher education in the U.S. will stratify into distinct tiers offering very different products. At least one or two of the tiers will focus on cost-effectiveness, meaning near-certain employability at the least cost. Seen from our perch, this train left the station long ago. When will private K-12 follow suit?