The Great Educational Shift
When Degrees Became Products and Learning Went Rogue
Universities once stood as intellectual sanctuaries where minds could explore, connect, and transform. Today, many have devolved into credential factories, churning out degrees while the very essence of education crumbles beneath bureaucratic weight and market pressures. This shift hasn't gone unnoticed by students who increasingly seek learning beyond institutional walls. The question emerges: are we witnessing the end of traditional higher education, or its necessary evolution?
The Commodification Catastrophe
The transformation of higher education from a pursuit of knowledge to a market commodity represents one of the most profound shifts in educational philosophy of the past century. Universities, once centres of intellectual exploration and community building, have increasingly adopted corporate models that treat education as a product and students as consumers.
Lawrence and Sharma (2002) identified this phenomenon as the "commodification of education and academic labour," where market logic infiltrates every aspect of university operations. This commodification has reshaped the university experience, transforming it from a collective intellectual journey into a transactional exchange of tuition for credentials.
What's particularly concerning is how universities have become what researchers term "asset-stripping" operations. As Holmwood and Servós (2019) observe, the focus has shifted from "investment in expanding and improving bureaucracies" to "disinvesting and increasing the commodification of higher education." This systematic hollowing out prioritises marketable outputs (degrees, research publications, rankings) over the cultivation of intellectual community.
This marketisation extends beyond institutional structures into the classroom itself. Brancaleone and O'Brien (2011) argue that learning outcomes in modern universities "betray a skills bias that confers on education a direct form of exchange value," reducing education to a series of checkboxes that signal employability rather than intellectual growth.
The Isolation Epidemic in Online Learning
Student experiencing isolation in online learning environment
The rapid shift to online education, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic but continuing as a cost-saving measure for many institutions, has exacerbated the disconnect between students and the educational community. While digital platforms promise accessibility and flexibility, research suggests they often fail to replicate the rich social fabric that traditionally underpins effective learning.
A comprehensive study published in 2024 examining distance learning found that students experienced significant increases in loneliness over time, with social interaction ratings dropping from 2.63 to 2.20 as online programs progressed (Li et al., 2024). This decline occurred despite students becoming more technically proficient with online learning platforms.
The research reveals a troubling paradox: as students spend more time in online learning environments, their sense of educational community actually deteriorates rather than strengthens. This counters the optimistic narrative that technology would eventually replicate or even enhance traditional classroom community.
What's lost isn't merely pleasant social interaction, but fundamental elements of effective learning. Baber (2021) found that meaningful social interaction directly correlates with learning effectiveness, noting that "the absence of physical presence in a classroom setting can lead to feelings of isolation among online learners" with measurable impacts on knowledge retention and critical thinking.
“69%
of students want more hands-on learning courses developed in collaboration with employers
”
Universities once thrived as spaces where ideas collided organically, where late-night dorm discussions and chance encounters with professors shaped intellectual development as much as formal lectures. Today's online education platforms, with their focus on content delivery and assessment rather than community building, leave students staring at screens, often with cameras off, essentially learning in isolation while paying premium prices for what amounts to glorified YouTube videos with assignments.
Perhaps the most damning indictment of modern higher education comes from the growing disconnect between what universities teach and what the employment landscape actually demands. As degrees have become standardised products, their relevance to real-world professional contexts has increasingly come into question.
Recent labour market data reveals a tectonic shift in employer expectations:
52% of Job postings on Indeed no longer include formal education requirements
Source: Indeed Hiring Lab, 2024
45% of companies plan to eliminate bachelor's degree requirements for various positions
Source: Intelligent.com Report, 2023
87% of companies expect to experience skills gaps in their workforce
Source: QS Graduate Employability Report, 2024
The Pew Research Center (2024) found that only one-in-four U.S. adults believe it's "extremely or very important to have a four-year college degree in order to get a well-paying job in today's economy." Even more telling, 49% say it's less important to have a degree today than it was 20 years ago.
The cruel irony is that while universities have been busy standardising curricula and focusing on easily measurable "learning outcomes," they've neglected the development of adaptive thinking, practical problem-solving, and technological fluency that employers actually value. The Society for Human Resource Management (2024) reports that 45% of employers believe college graduates lack essential job skills, a damning assessment of higher education's practical relevance.
This misalignment is particularly evident in technological readiness. The 2024 Graduate Employability Report found that 51% of employers expect new talent to lack AI literacy skills, yet 55% of college programs actively discouraged the use of AI tools in their courses, a perfect illustration of education's growing irrelevance to contemporary workplace demands.
In response to the institutional failures of traditional education, a powerful counter-movement has emerged: self-directed learning. This approach, where learners take primary responsibility for planning, executing, and evaluating their learning experiences, represents not merely an alternative to traditional education but a fundamental reimagining of how learning happens.
Self-directed education derives from "the self-chosen activities and life experiences of the learner" rather than from predetermined curricula or institutional requirements (Alliance for Self-Directed Education, 2024). This shift in agency, from institution to individual, marks a profound philosophical departure from industrial-era educational models.
Research suggests that self-directed learners often demonstrate higher levels of intrinsic motivation, better time management, and stronger self-regulation skills than their traditionally educated counterparts (Du & Hew, 2022). These capabilities, increasingly valued in knowledge economy workplaces, emerge naturally from learning contexts that require autonomous decision-making and personal responsibility.
The proliferation of self-directed learning opportunities reflects both technological possibility and market demand. Online platforms offering specialised training, open educational resources, and global learning communities have created unprecedented access to knowledge outside institutional boundaries. Meanwhile, the rise of alternative credentials, from industry certifications to skills-based micro-credentials, offers new pathways to signal competence to employers.
What distinguishes self-directed learning from merely "learning on your own" is its intentionality and community dimension. Self-directed learners typically develop personal learning networks, engage with communities of practice, and create accountability structures that support their development. Contrary to stereotypes of isolated autodidacts, many self-directed learning approaches emphasise collaboration, mentorship, and peer learning, often more authentically than traditional classrooms.
The effectiveness of self-directed learning has been documented across diverse contexts. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Chen and Chiou (2014) found that self-directed learning approaches were associated with higher levels of engagement and better learning outcomes compared to teacher-centred remote instruction.
The decline of the traditional educational community need not signal the end of meaningful collective learning. Rather, it represents an opportunity to reimagine how learning communities form, function, and thrive in the contemporary context. The path forward involves neither uncritical defence of crumbling institutions nor naïve technophilia, but thoughtful integration of what works from both traditional and emergent approaches.
Research on social belonging in educational contexts provides important insights. The key finding from recent studies is that "isolation from the relationships developed at their university, the perception of the lack of support from faculty and peers, negatively affects college student learning" (Zhang et al., 2023). However, these relationships need not be confined to traditional institutional structures.
Emerging models of educational community include:
Cohort-based courses that combine online learning with intentional community building through synchronous discussions, collaborative projects, and peer feedback mechanisms.
Learning collectives are groups of learners with shared interests who form self-organising groups to pursue learning goals together, often with rotating facilitation and distributed expertise.
Apprenticeship networks that connect learners with practitioners for hands-on skill development within authentic work contexts, revitalising ancient learning traditions with modern technological affordances.
Hybrid spaces that combine physical and digital presence, allowing for both local connection and global participation in learning communities.
What distinguishes these emerging models is their prioritisation of human connection alongside content mastery. Joosten and Cusatis (2020) found that "socialisation is a measure of preference or need for social interaction and communication with peers and teachers" and represents a critical variable in determining learning outcomes and future professional success.
Universities can still play a vital role in this ecosystem if they're willing to evolve beyond credential factories into genuine learning commons. This would require a radical reimagining of their purpose, structure, and relationship to learners, shifting from gatekeepers to enablers of diverse learning pathways.
The most promising models integrate the best aspects of institutional education (structured progression, expert guidance, peer diversity) with the strengths of self-directed approaches (learner agency, real-world relevance, technological fluency).
The great educational shift underway represents neither simple decline nor inevitable progress, but rather a complex reconfiguration of how learning happens in contemporary society. As traditional institutions struggle with commodification pressures and technological disruption, learners are pioneering new pathways that prioritise relevance, agency, and authentic community.
The question is not whether traditional higher education will survive (it will, in some form), but whether it will adapt meaningfully enough to remain a central rather than peripheral institution in knowledge creation and transmission. The evidence suggests that those universities willing to reimagine their core functions, to become platforms for diverse learning rather than factories for standardised credentials, have the greatest chance of thriving.
For individual learners, the proliferation of educational pathways represents an unprecedented opportunity alongside genuine challenges. The freedom to chart one's learning journey comes with the responsibility to develop the self-regulation, critical discernment, and network-building skills that sustain effective learning outside structured institutions.
What remains constant across these shifting educational landscapes is the fundamentally social nature of meaningful learning.
References
Baber, H. (2021). Social interaction and effectiveness of the online learning: A moderating role of maintaining social distance during the pandemic COVID-19. Asian Education and Development Studies, 11(1), 159-171.
Brancaleone, D., & O'Brien, S. (2011). Educational commodification and the (economic) sign value of learning outcomes. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 32(4), 501-519.
Cengage Group. (2024). Graduate Employability Report: Preparing students for the GenAI-driven workplace. Luminafoundation.org.
Chen, B.H., & Chiou, H.H. (2014). Learning style, sense of community and learning effectiveness in a hybrid learning environment. Interactive Learning Environments, 22(4), 485-496.
Du, J., & Hew, K.F.T. (2022). Using recommender systems to promote self-regulated learning in online education settings. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 54(4), 557-580.
Hehir, E., Zeller, M., Luckhurst, J., & Chandler, T. (2021). Developing student connectedness under remote learning using digital resources. Education Sciences, 11(10), 565.
Holmwood, J., & Marcuello Servós, C. (2019). Challenges to public universities: Digitalisation, commodification and precarity. Social Epistemology, 33(4), 309-320.
Joosten, T., & Cusatis, R. (2020). Online learning readiness. American Journal of Distance Education, 34(3), 180-193.
Karatas, K., & Arpaci, I. (2021). The role of self-directed learning, metacognition, and 21st-century skills in predicting the readiness for online learning. Contemporary Educational Technology, 13(3), ep300.
Lawrence, S., & Sharma, U. (2002). Commodification of education and academic labour, using the balanced scorecard in a university setting. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 13(5-6), 661-677.
Li, Y. et al. (2024). The impact of distance education on the socialisation of college students in the Covid-19 era: problems in communication and impact on mental health. PMC, 11127413.
Pew Research Center. (2024). Is a College Degree Worth It in 2024? Social Trends Report.
Zhang, J. et al. (2023). The Impact of Social Relationships on College Student Learning During COVID-19. PMC, 10271819.