Icdk outlook No. 04, May 2019 The Future of Education

 
 
Danish Agency for Science and Higher Education 
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shape of education can be altered to service students in new ways.
Figure 1. Unbundling of higher education 
 
Note: examples of companies supplying components of the bundled university 
The new education-related companies, examples represented in figure 1, do not 
necessarily have to act as an alternative, as some might also serve as a 
supplement to the existing university, for example when considering the study- or 
administrative tools. Others however act as an actual degree-offering institution 
with most of the essential components of the university included and thus act as a 
substitute to the education institutions we know. Unbundling of education is thus a 
matter of separating the units comprising the traditional model into separate units 
that can be sold off or delivered to the students. In this discussion, it is however 
important to keep in mind, that the US educational system resembles a business 
industry to a higher degree than the Danish educational system, which makes it 
easier to capitalize on education. With tuitions on the rise, the alternatives have a 
business case for competing with existing institutions, for example by offering 
lower tuition costs or free admission on the condition that students pay a 
percentage of their salary back to the institution when they get a job
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. However, 
the technological tools for online learning might serve as a driver for increased 
global competition between the established institutions when they include their 
programs in the online learning platforms, as proximity will no longer be a barrier 
for studying at top institutions.
2.1 
Drivers and signals of unbundling 
One signal of unbundling that is present in Silicon Valley is the massive interest 
within the EdTech space as well as the vast number of educational alternatives and 
tools - some already mentioned. Looking at Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) 
alone, the growth in the supply of courses has been massive (see Figure 2 below). 
With the number of supplied courses approaching 10,000, MOOCs are definitely 
still on the rise. 
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At MissionU for example, students pay 15% of their pre-tax income each 
month for three years if they get a job with at least a $50,000 annual salary. 

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