The point is that so far it seems it's not just the "competency certification" that the market and society is demanding -- it (for the moment) really is demandi

The point is that so far it seems it's not just the "competency certification" that the market and society is demanding -- it (for the moment) really is demanding the education that you describe as a mis-sold extra. That's not so surprising to me, in that a degree tends to be an entry to a career. And that career can be long enough that competencies are likely to change in unpredictable ways over your career. So, it makes some sense for graduate employers to be more interested in an education they believe means you are likely adapt well to those changes, and perhaps lead those changes. Rather than a competency certification that shows you know the current state-of-play. Whether that will change over time is an interesting question. If the market does move towards just certifying competencies, I have an awkward suspicion that it will be because of general trends towards workforce casualisation. If you see employees as disposable (hire the skills of today, and tomorrow fire them to hire the skills of tomorrow) then education is less important than today's competency. This isn't intended as a criticism of MOOCs, nor in any sense to diminish them. I'm not only interested in them, but trying to develop some -- I have something of a vested interest towards MOOCs... It's just that I'm personally more interested in how we can improve MOOCs to offer an education, rather than how we can get the market to stop demanding an education and just want a competency-certification.