Good point. Bricks-and-mortar universities as promoting life advantage through better sexual matches. Worthy of a thesis in evolutionary psychology: the sexual selection of academia, perhaps?

I remember one day my university ecology class were going on an excursion to the mountains for the weekend. Deftly side-stepping the dork/nerd/jerk who was making a beeline for the pretty girl sitting in the back seat, I sat next to her, and he sat next to the lecturer for the five-hour trip. Chat-chat-chat she and I went. Now she's been my wife for the last 28 years. Very ecological.

Fascinating approach and theories. Some doubts though:

- that finishing apprentiships (no High School finish?) in Australia leads to tradie professions that earn more than uni graduate careers.

- that Denmark is a very small - cllass structured - known each other since kindy world - that is dissimilar to Australia. Something about Lutheran Danish society? What are Danish marriage-divorce stats across the board?

- the high divorce rates of busy high earning graduates in Australia may alter the uni = marital-kickoff message.

- over reliance on statistics that then leave many explanations-possible interpretations.

- there may be as many correlations as causative relationships - both in attractiveness to employers and attractiveness to partners.

I'm somewhat bitter and cynical :)

Pete

Spoken like a true economist, who has never ever run a business or successful commercial operation!?

And as JKJ has so ably pointed out, you can get to know someone by just claiming the captive audience seat next to them!

And a clearly very determined JKJ, with his eyes on the prize, could have likely followed said nerd into a revolving door and come out first?

Scandinavians have a tradition of properly chaperoned trial marriages, where people are enabled to truly get to know one another! Sharing common expenses, household chores, and all the minutia of marriage.

One supposes, shared university accommodation might create similar opportunities, as does the workplace, back packing etc?

The days of traditional bricks and mortar institutes, one/two
hundred thousand dollar degrees are numbered; along with the toffee nosed snobbery/privilege that seems part and parcel of it!

The only constant in the entire universe is constant change!

"Businesses" that rely on increased margins invariably force their customer base to go to the opposition!

And where volume replaces margins, those businesses are the ones attracting the customers. Therefore MOOCs will succeed; and in spades!

Online learning is much much cheaper, and there is a place for campuses (dating sites) in the equation, for the few weeks needed for the practical hands on stuff!

And given that can be a continuous revolving door operation, allow much greater numbers to go in and out the door for considerably less!

And a single gender operations, (non dating sites) will increase the successful outcomes, free of the usual hormones/distractions! vot you vant, a degree or dirty diapers by ze dozen?

Better that the sexual conquests/exploits follow the degrees, thereby reducing the almost inevitable drop outs; and waste less money/talent or success story (rags to riches) dreams?
When our best and brightest succeed, SO DO WE ALL!
Rhrosty.

Rhrosty

I found that the women in university accommodation were the Sexual Predators. Scary Aye?

Or is that a wet dream of my dotage mixed with http://youtu.be/Y1txEAywdiw . A thought-place where uni accommodation was the JUNGLE and me the innocent Arnie!!

Regards

Pete

Don't be so modest Pete/Prince Charming personified?

In the face of your taut trim and tanned body, ripped abs, devil may care attitude, virility, rep as a staying lover, generosity and chiseled Greek God looks/bank balance, coupled to a voice deeper than God's, women couldn't help themselves could they?

I have a brother that had a (she was all over him like a rash) similar experience, that came to a sudden shuddering halt, the fortnight after the ring of gold went on her finger.

Ah, predatory women, where are they now?

When I want one, in the night, all I have to do is dream.
I can make her mine, anytime day or night,
all I have to do is; dream, dream, dream, dream.
Only trouble is, gee whiz, I'm dreaming my life away!

And there's no (yes Master) Genie in the bottle!

Maybe I'll die in my sleep, deep in a desperately desirable dream! One hopes there'll be no problem screwing the coffin lid down?
Cheers, Rhrosty.

Interesting article

Surely the key question is whether partner selection takes place at university. Among my cohort of friends and acquaintances at university almost everyone took a spouse/long-term partner who is also a graduate, but only one couple met at university. For the rest it is seem more that like attracts like, or perhaps that higher education is a threshold qualification when considering long-term partners (the short-term ones were another matter!).

If the latter, then a MOOC education will be no barrier to securing a suitable mate, as long as MOOCs’ qualifications have equivalent value and status.

Thankyou Rhrosty

For your deep concern for my welfare.

It was not easy you know. Being a sexual plaything. Quite demeaning.

Remote female friend enters my monk like garret. A quick kiss then she strips 1 minute 10 seconds later.

And I wasn't even warmed up.

I won't go on. But you can imagine what we put-upon males have to go through at uni.

Pete

Jason Potts writes that MOOCs are "not dating sites". Fixed: a team of students I mentored has built a social network, just for university students. ;-)

More seriously, on-line courses can support social interaction. Many MOOCS do not cover these social aspects well, not because the technology can't support it, but because the courses have not been well designed by competent instructional designers.

The case for MOOCs is not, as Professor Potts suggests "they can deliver the same educational services, but at a fraction of the cost". Distance education (DE) courses, have existed for more than one hundred years, but these don't provide the same education and they are not necessarily much cheaper. They provide access to a different form of education (in some ways better) for people who would otherwise not have access.

Professor Potts seems to think that MOOCs are cheap and easy. However, very few people ever finish a MOOC and one will not get you a university degree. Some of providers offer a "professional" program, but if you add up the cost of all the courses required, it is not necessarily cheaper than a conventional higher education program.

The real story is that on-line tools are already being used to supplement most university programs in Australia. In the next few years, the norm will be on-line courses, supplemented with classes. This will be a challenge for Australian universities. Torrens University Australia is part of Laureate International Universities, which already provides education on-line to 800,000 students.

Discussing the viability of on-line courses seems outdated, like discussing the benefits of email was fifteen years ago. Some people "got it" and the rest had a few years to catch up. I started delivering on-line university courses in 2009 and, apart from the occasional guest lecture, have not been back in front of a class since then. The idea that myself and my students would have to arrange to assemble somewhere in the world, just so that I could talk at them for an hour sounds weird (and research shows not an effective teaching technique).

More at: http://blog.highereducationwhisperer.com/2015/02/on-line-courses-can-support-social.html