[alwayslikethis]

UBI as an idea has merits but it's not the solution for this problem. The textbooks are outrageously overpriced because it is sold to a captive audience. Giving the captive audience more money just allows the publishers to price gouge even more. The solution is to make public domain or otherwise generously licensed books at least for well known subjects.

[PaulRobinson]

If you are paid to teach and/or research, you should also be paid to publish, and university presses should be dedicated to the free and public dissemination of that teaching (starting to happen, online courses being free to audit), and publishing artefacts (which is still actively resisted by journals and textbook publishers).

Isn’t it strange we can start to see the value of a course being made free to audit, but the books and papers that enhance the learning, are still protected like they’re holy relics that only rich, anointed classes can have access to…