“The Future of Higher Education: Apprenticeships vs. Business School” by Peter Diamandis

The university system in the USA is a huge business. It thrives on higher-than-inflation tuition increases and big donations from successful alumni.

Some of the smartest people I know believe that college education is outdated. They argue that a motivated person would do better learning on his own, for free.

I’ve argued with them over the years. My view, in a nutshell, is that the value of an intellectual environment and mentorship on the core skills of success – thinking, writing, and speaking – cannot be overestimated.

But it’s becoming more difficult to make that case today. First, because liberal arts programs are increasingly devoted to leftist ideological positions. (The “diversity” provost at the University of Michigan earns $400,00 a year.) But also because technical education, in today’s interconnected world, moves way too fast for academics to keep up.

In this recent essay, Peter Diamandis compares the value of getting an MBA from Harvard or Yale to joining an apprenticeship program where future entrepreneurs get to work on current business challenges in real time. LINK