[pixcavator]

I find this kind of reports very encouraging. I think the future of education is professors becoming free agents in a free market. Really, why can a lawyer set up his own firm or a doctor start his own practice and deal with life and death situations but a professor can’t just teach a few calculus courses without being affiliated with a university?

[michael_dorfman]

but a professor can’t just teach a few calculus courses without being affiliated with a university?

There's nothing stopping a professor from doing just that; there's no legal requirement that all calculus courses be affiliated with a university.

However, there seem to be some very good reasons (some market-based, in fact) why this is not the business model most professors choose.

[pixcavator]

They can't give course credit or award degrees.

There was a relevant quote posted recently by "tokenadult": “the diligence of public teachers is more or less corrupted by the circumstances which render them more or less independent of their success and reputation in their particular professions.. . . . The privileges of graduation, besides, are in many countries . . . obtained only by attending the lectures of the public teachers. . . . The endowment of schools and colleges have, in this manner, not only corrupted the diligence of public teachers, but have rendered it almost impossible to have any good private ones." -- Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, Book V, Part 3, Article II (1776)

[morsch]

Well, for one thing, because we as a society may decide we don't want professors or students limiting their field of studies solely motivated by its ROI.

[pixcavator]

But it's OK for doctors, lawyers and their clients to do that?

[morsch]

I guess there's room for both in all three professions you mention.