This is the first "let's completely overhaul university" idea I've heard that doesn't completely suck. I like the ideas of world travel and reasonable tuition,

This is the first "let's completely overhaul university" idea I've heard that doesn't completely suck. I like the ideas of world travel and reasonable tuition, and doing away with a lot of the useless cruft of a traditional university - Minereva sounds like fun, and if I was in high school right now, I'd be applying. That said, one possible hassle I can see with this plan is that to bootstrap an "elite" reputation, and deliver these big core courses in a useful way, you're going to need some amazing professors, and as a PhD candidate with ambitions of teaching, I'm not sure I'd want to work for this university. Teaching via email and video lectures is unappealing, and (more importantly for catching top talent), I don't think it would be a good career move - they don't have the elite reputation yet, and I feel like at the end of my "flexible short term", I'd have trouble convincing a more traditional university that my experience wasn't from some online diploma mill.