[rjf72]

Just to hit on your last point (that result oriented loans could kill "unprofitable" university programs) I'd add that universities existed for centuries when, relative to the entire population, practically nobody attended them.

This "businessification" of university education is an extremely new thing. I know you didn't intend it this way but that comment in a way hits me like when the music industry was trying to claim that piracy would kill music. We could pass a law that any and all music could be copied indefinitely and for free which would indeed kill the music as a mass industry, but music would undoubtedly continue to thrive. We just wouldn't have so many Justin Biebers or Britney Spears. Darn.

And so too for education. Get rid of systems which motivate profit driven education (which is no longer an issue just at universities which are overtly for profit), and you don't destroy education - you destroy the artificial facade masquerading as education.

[9dev]

That's an interesting thought. Amusingly I just assumed I'd still pay for Spotify in that case, since they save me the time of maintaining and carrying my library around. Similarly, I'm pretty sure that industries may shift or change fundamentally, but we're far better off with these changes ultimately.