Kevin Carey's The End of College: Crafting a Future of Learning and Unlocking the University of Everywhere

Ted Truman: The book was all about the past rather than the future. No vision. American bias. Kept waiting for the end

Canada on Aug 24, 2020

Bianor Costa Freire Colchesqui: Apresenta visão diferenciada. Com argumentos consistentes em sua colocação primária ao se referir com o fim do modelo educacional atual

Brazil on Oct 15, 2017

Amazon Customer: A Brilliant book!

India on Jun 04, 2017

Senora_c: Wow! What a prediction! I could not agree more after reading this book. I am now on my 3rd Online course delivered by top Universities in America

United Kingdom on Mar 05, 2016

Richard Morchoe: `EVERYBODY has won, and all must have prizes.'

So proclaimed the Dodo after the caucus race in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. That would seem to be the ethos behind our nation's attitude toward post-secondary schooling. There would be a place for everyone to attain an education and a ticket to a middle-class life.

On the surface, it would seem to be working. After The Second World War enrollment in colleges and universities continually increased such that today a third of the population have bachelor's degrees as opposed to ten percent in 1960. By 2005 a college grad made 80% more per hour than someone with a high school diploma, whereas in 1977 it was 40%.

Not all is sweetness and light. In The End of College, Kevin Carey puts contemporary higher education under the microscope and finds that we have not entered academic nirvana, but there is hope. It's just not in the current system.

According to Carey, “Americans have long been told that our colleges and universities are the best in the world. It turns out that when it comes to college student learning, we are decidedly mediocre.”

As evidence, he cites a 2013 Organization for Economic...

United States on Jul 12, 2015

Dr. K. E. Patrick: This book delivered more than I expected. Yes, it covers a lot of the same ground as College (Un)bound and the horrible state of US higher education in terms of cost -- and in most cases, unnecessary, cynical rising costs that have no benefit for the student's education.

But more than that, it traces the whole history of the university system -- both in the US and abroad -- and explains how the US ended up with a system that is neither research nor trade nor liberal arts, but a mish-mash of the three with poor vision and aim.

It also traces the rise of electronic contributions to education, culminating in the internet revolution today of options like EdX, where one can get an Ivy League education for free, but just not with the piece of paper to go with it.

This is where the book leaves off -- at the cusp of a huge revolution, when society realises that universities shouldn't have the monopoly on qualifications.

United Kingdom on Jun 14, 2015

Clyde Craig: Great exposition of the growth of technology in learning, and the future of distance learning. As an online teacher, it confirmed many of my conclusions, and gave me deeper understanding of what is happening and going to happen.

United States on Apr 30, 2015

Athan: Much as “The End of College” is the thoroughly researched and passionately written “labor of love” of first-time book author (and distinguished NYT columnist) Kevin Carey, its scope is narrower than you’d think if you were to browse through it for a minute or two at the bookstore.

It does not take aim at the higher education system in Europe, for example, where a college degree is not a prerequisite for the vocational training that leads into the much-prized legal and medical professions, where vocational training for less-demanding jobs starts in high school and where the funding for research (as part of all educational funding) is chiefly provided by government.

This is, rather, an attack at the 20th century phenomenon that is the US Bachelor’s degree, and includes a very thorough history of how it came to be, how the US universities were built around it and made it their cash cow, why it no longer serves anybody very well (except for tenured researchers and college administrators) and why now is the time that it will all unravel. The author builds his expose of what the future holds, based on
1. An account of his experience of the future as...

United States on Apr 19, 2015