Professor X* reviews the state of higher education 2 years after his well-read Atlantic expose. A few choice bits:

• The university experience in the 1970s: “My pursuit was rather solipsistic and no doubt shortsighted but harmless–a solitary pastime, like collecting penguin figurines or breeding orchids.”
• The university experience the 2000s: College now “was a place where students accumulated credits to advance at their jobs. College was very much part of the workaday world. All kinds of people attended because, if they wanted a bigger paycheck, they had no choice in the matter.”

Might it be time to rethink the concept of “higher education”?

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* “Professor X” is probably The Atlantic‘s name for the writer. X would admit that he is not a professor; the X is more fitting. Perhaps: “Adjunct X” or “Scut Worker X”?