Seventy thousand engineering students were graduated in
the United States last year(2004), 350,000 in India and
600,000 in China. America has lost its technological
dominance.
A computer science degree in India, at their best school
costs $600/yr. In the United States it costs in excess of
$100,000. Notice the difference. 350,000 graduates in
India, 70,000 in the United States. What price the
economic incentive?
Are colleges and universities worth it? Is their
educational stodginess impeding our technological
progress? Can we afford an infrastructure that drives up
the price of education?
And here sits the Internet long overdue. It's time to
import foreign curricula to combat the high cost of
domestic education? Is it really worth it for an American
University degree, where students enter anonymous classes
of 300 people, and registration accepts international
credits. Why spend $30,000/yr at a University when
350,000 newly educated engineers are waiting in India to
put $300/yr foreign curricula online. Why should we have
faith in our local institutions when IT corporations
invest billions in overseas educational, development, R&D
and recruitment capabilities?
Okay! So a student needs the guidance of a professor to
show them how to use a bunson burner and get molecular
weights, and students need the camaraderie and fostering
only an educational institution can bring, but all that's
fast becoming a luxury. If corporate America is going to
push us headlong into the fast paced, low waged
international economy, it's time for our bureaucracy and
its educational institutions to make the move with us.
