In the past, the only way to acquire a deep understanding of a topic was to attend a university and study in a traditional class setting. As such, employers mad

In the past, the only way to acquire a deep understanding of a topic was to attend a university and study in a traditional class setting. As such, employers made hiring decisions based on the merits of one's Alma mater; in the early days of higher education, individuals attending top schools were the only ones who had access to the highest quality instruction. Today, the biggest threat to Higher-ed is the movement towards open courseware, largely spearheaded by MIT (see here: http://bit.ly/9GawDQ http://bit.ly/9GawDQ). However, open courseware cannot be a threat to large institutions as long as hiring is based on a paper degree rather than the amount of acquired knowledge and specialized skill one has attained. I believe these online degrees are a rather expensive way to solve this problem.