Oxford Versus London School of Economics

Universities, like my alma mater, the University of Wisconsin - Madison, will resist this "mix and match" approach to learning. It will see such piecemeal learning as an erosion of standards, which it is, although it is flexible for non-traditional learners. Overall, enrollment in higher education will fall as people opt for apprenticeships and entrepreneurship instead of degrees. If they want a degree, they will do it part-time, even in mix-and-match fashion. Cardinal John Henry Newman wrote about this in 1857 in his The Scope and Nature of University Education. Ireland was moving ahead with creating its own National University, now called University College Dulbin, or UCD. I spent a year at TCD, Trinity College, Dublin, which was founded in 1591 by Queen Elizabeth I on the site of a monaster that her father Henry VIII had confiscated when he broke with the Catholic Church. The Irish therefore had mixed feelings about TCD and wanted their own place, UCD. Newman wrestled with this. The London School of Economics had just appeared. It was the first distance learning university in history - using correspondence courses to award degrees. Newman was an Oxford man, and he argued that letter writing could never replace the experience of living in a learning environment, an Oxford college, if you like. This is the debate. It is not new. At this point, your humble servant does not see it as either or. It is what works for the individual. If you have the money, time to be resident, do it. If you do not, take the other route. Persons who want to learn will do it both ways.