The Neoliberal working world that we have come to believe in, no longer exists. (See The Rollerball Economy)

Universities are scattered over 5 levels  : denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance.

Modern brick and mortor Universities that dominate today's tertiary education tend to move slower than events around them. This is not to say that there are not great places offering great opportunities to great futures. There are. However, the very term "Ivy League" conjures up social images of balmy afternoons spent languishing on the lawns of campus in the company of students from a wide cross section of disciplines. The Business Student should be cautioned against the pitfalls that exist in such a world.

Modern Universities with the campus community, social architecture and "all round education" offered, tend to have been built in the 20th century, or are run by academics trained in the 20th century. That means that when they were formed the Internet did not exist. The knowledge economy as we know it was theoretical and open source was not a mainstream culture. Where there is  no such thing as free lunch you find closed access journals publishing obscure psuedo-mathematical digests, lecturers earning royalties from copyright texts and a financial system of stipends, put in place to lock any prospective graduate into a prohibitive debt cycle. Students following this path are likely to spend the majority of their twenties mired in debt and their thirties placed in the grey world of the working 90%, with an outside chance of ascending in their forties  to the 10%. In this world the worst lack all conviction are the best are full of passionate intensity.

We have not seen a world as unequal as ours since 1913. 100 years ago the outcome was disastrous. Some say the War is imminent. Some say the War has already begun. Its a new War fought between the 1%, where the 99% are irrelevant to the outcome and rather than marched  to the front - they face a far worse fate- they are ignored and sent to watch football.  The War will not wait for you. Dorothy, if you spend your twenties skating around in the twentieth century, do not be surprised what when you wake up you find that Kansas has gone bye bye and you are watching from the sidelines in the cheap seats.

In a constant state of denial, most Universities are more interested in preserving the known traditions, preserving the employment status of their staff and providing safe pathways for the young minds entrusted to them. Business students are particularly susceptible to the dangers associated with this approach.  The Rollerball economy tells us that the safe paths lead to the football stadium and that the vast majority of people will be excluded from labor in the near future. Only a very few (Performers, Capital Managers and Capitalists) will be disruptors. The rest will live in shallows and misery.

To their credit Universities have tried rapidly to adjust to the new world. Online facilities are available and use of open source is encouraged. Yet no matter how hard they try, Universities are run by bureaucrats. The regulations set up by the Education Departments that oversee tertiary education add an evaluative layer of red tape that ties down real innovation. In a world where courses take upwards of three years to approve from concept to delivery,  Universities, no matter how they try are by definition as much as 5 years out of date. 5 years ago, Uber did not exist. ISIS did not exists, Newspapers still had a future and Reality TV Stars did not win elections.

To the Business student, the future is particularly important, even if that is a future that holds a gripping darkness for 99% of the people!

Modern Universities are notoriously retrospective. The 1 to 60 Lecture in which a "Font of Wisdom" Professor repeats the same lecture year after year to a less and less relevant audience can no longer compete with The MOOC, which uses the Internet Delivery of the state of the art production of the topic under consideration. Combined with the input of peers from multiple countries and cultures, the MOOC (Mass Open Online Course) provides not only a competitive alternative,but a superior alternative. A first class graduate from a well designed MOOC will outperform all comers in the knowledge economy. This lean, mean apparatus does not suit the bloated administrations.

If that is not enough here comes the grimy underbelly. In most multi discipline Universities and Colleges, the Business Students are usually the majority and they subsidize the more specialized courses! In a financial model that no longer works, Universities have begun to cannibalize themselves. Business careers, the only outcomes that can lead to a lucrative future, sacrifice quality to pay for their neighbors to pretend that they are studying for careers that will create return.  Now this may have worked for prospective Capitalists in the 20th century, where we subsidized the poor people who would spend the rest of their lives working for us.  In the Rollerball Economy Labor loses value for all but the few performers. The current system has already begun to breakdown and the anger is palpable. Riots plague the less privilege and the privileged blanket themselves in a fee structure that is designed more to induce the illusion of  financial advantage than to address the pressing problems of Post Capitalism

To their credit, many Universities have begun bargaining with the Rollerball Economy. They are using "blended learning" as a supplement to their brick and mortor activities, but however well intention-ed, their online efforts are, they are  trapped in the old model. Carrying the old fashioned debt heavy package may work for the staff , but  consigns the graduates to the underclass.  The sclerotic Government supported, debt packaged offering is no longer financially justifiable and as this reality sets in depression is inevitable.

The MOOC brings the opportunity of free education. It also brings new challenges. The MOOC replaces the Font-of-Wisdom with the worlds-best-presenter and replaces the clock work system of industrial organization design with an open online collaboration that never sleeps. The world of business and learning blend naturally and the new 1% begin to emerge.