Craig Vezina Conversation with Christian Long, May 13, 2020
Christian Long: I think higher ed is a massive question mark right now. I think that there’s some technical structural elements that are in the next six months to 18 months are up for grabs. I’m not the only one to say this. I think you’re going to see lots of higher institutions that are going to be on the verge of closing or having to announce bankruptcy or frankly are going to disappear in the next two, three, four years. The market just will not sustain because of their debt load, their capital, liabilities and the question marks of who shows up. And the very model of higher ed is I think it feels like a housing market to me like it’s the most incredible important thing we have is the ability to provide our citizens in our communities and ourselves access to higher ed. But the model of it has been feeling to me a little bit dated and questionable in the last decade or so because it’s become unsustainable in terms of the cost, the tuition cost and the value proposition is getting more and more questionable about what is that degree really worth.

So prior to COVID to me it looks like an overvalued industry and an undervalued, or not undervalued but a questionable return on that investment. If I really look at it is it worth having that debt load just to get your next job. I just don’t know. And I think philosophically we still have an older model of what we mean by higher ed. We get to COVID now and it’s like oh goodness, the very model of higher ed is going to have to reimagine itself and defend itself. And some of it will be self-evident and there will be winners and there will be people who still crave it because it was always there. And there will be others who will start to shift away from the degree focus so spend the next four years with us, the next two years with us and take on an incredible debt and be a passion alumni and hopefully leverage that for the rest of your career life. I think that’s going to shift from many people to be what we mean by just in time education, just in time certification, just in time training, just in time access.

So I imagine if I get really excited about the future of higher ed. I don’t care of my kids get a college degree. I’ve got an 11 and a 13 year old and to be really honest I no longer care if they go to college. I do care that they have access to ideas and mentors and that they are constantly upgrading who they are. And I think they could because of COVID and because of this moment in time and things that are coming they could spend the rest of their life almost like with an ATM card constantly swiping and constantly getting access to ideas and resources and expertise and constantly upgrading leveling up, recertifying, going deeper in areas of passion and in areas of professional responsibility for the rest of their career. So the idea of dad and mom being an alumni of a university and talking about that and wearing the sweatshirt I wonder if my kids are going to even understand why that was the model for generations for those who could.

And instead it’ll say I’m always in school, but I work full time as opposed to I’m a part-time student who has a job on the side. That’s what I think is a possible big picture. But I think in the short term the business model of many, many higher institutions is dangling over a cliff and I would say the very mental paradigm or model that you must go to college to get a degree within a timeframe and therefore carry that debt and carry that alumni experience in definitely, I’m not sure that’s going to be what our grandchildren will refer to or what even our school age kids today will refer to in a matter of years or decades. I wonder to a certain degree if we’re reframing higher ed what the trickle down effect that’s going to have on K-12 which most K-12 now is framed as college prep whether they are literally or they are aspirationally. I’m wondering what happens to childhood if we don’t make it about college prep.

[00:04:03] And prior to the cold war, prior to World War II, prior to the GMAT and SAT and meritocracy university we didn’t look at all of K-12 as preparation for college. So in that means childhood had a different dynamic. I’m wondering going forward if university is ever present and access to resources and training and remote asynchronous pockets of teaching and learning is available, what might that mean as we trickle down to K-12? What might that mean for childhood if it’s not a sprint to higher ed. If everything isn’t you need to do this to get into college or to prepare for college. So I wonder about these kind of secondary tertiary like oblique impacts and opportunities that come down and affect a four year old or a 12 year old or a 17 year old whose entire life isn’t are you going to get into college or take this class because or how will your family afford it. But instead it’s like what does it mean to be a learner at the age of eight. What does it mean to be a member of a project team at the age of 14. What does it mean at five to be curious. So I’m wondering about those things too in relation to higher ed.