Will Udacity courses be accredited? Will their accreditation be taken seriously? If not them, then some new startup in this space will be. They will spike the money-hose directed at HarvardYaleOxfordCambridge.
Their business model depends on their ability to teach and then connect students with hiring employers (in interviews they indicated their business plan is to generate revenue through recruitment). Whether accredited or not, as a student, what's good for Udacity is good for me.
The professors are also well respected brand names in their own right. Having your introduction to probabilistic robots come from Thrun to me carriers weight
With version control software like git (and especially github), and the ability for anyone to build anything on their own, accreditation doesn't matter much. Not every company agrees, but enough do that it's not a big deal. The real question is "can you do the job", and with programming, it's not too difficult to show that you can, if you can.
I think we can agree most people reading this site and competing in the startup space know accreditation isn't too important. Aside from us, there is the 99.999% of the professional workspace where this idea is heretical. For them, a reasonably credible system of accreditation carries a lot of weight. The post-Uni startup that addresses these concerns will take most of the pot.
"The post-Uni startup that addresses these concerns will take most of the pot."
I don't know. It will be pretty interesting to see how it plays out. It was said above that Udacity's business model is to connect students with employers, so there will be a big push to make that happen. Contrast that with a school who focuses on accreditation. There will be less push to make sure you are employed at the end. You will, however, have the all important (to 99.999% of the population) accreditation.
If you are going in with the goal to get a job at the end, it seems like the former is going to yield better results, in my humble opinion. And if you are studying the subject just out of enjoyment, neither model matters, because who cares if you have a job or accreditation at the end?
I feel we're a long way from claiming one business model the victor.
The professors are also well respected brand names in their own right. Having your introduction to probabilistic robots come from Thrun to me carriers weight