Tuition Fees. Like them or loath them they’re now here, but what are the implications for the enterprise and more specifically, what will they mean for Cloud Computing?
Over the next two blog postings we’ll argue both sides of the coin.
To start with it’s the turn of those in favour of tuition fees.
In Favour
“The countries in the world in which universities make the biggest contribution to social mobility are those with the highest fees.” – Nick Boles, Conservative MP for Grantham and Stamford
Cloud Computing is not just on the cusp, but is happily galloping over the cusp of greatness. Apple has just launched their iCloud, media-savvy proof that cloud is now being used (effectively) and loved by the masses, by anyone with an iPhone, iPad or Apple computer. Cloud is now a trusted process for work and home alike.
This mass adoption will need increased infrastructure and further development, in order to sustain growth and securely manage both personal and enterprise accounts. This naturally needs a larger workforce than is currently available and will also need sustained investment in training.
The workforce should come through our colleges and Universities. There is a need for highly skilled minds to be trained in both the theory and application of Cloud Computing, and one such route for this would be through Higher Education.
Back in May, Theresa Durrant, Operations Director at Resource on Demand (ROD), said:
“Higher Education Institutions need to further their commercial partnerships with organisations and platforms in order to give under-graduates the edge in a crowded job market. Through offering modules in contemporary technology, such as cloud computing, graduates will enter the job market better equipped for the task in hand.”
“We are currently seeing graduates enter the job market with no certification at all, which is the bare minimum they would need to work with a platform such as salesforce.com. There is then additional training they need to undertake before they can begin to work, which we hope can be avoided in the future.”
There is need for the educational system to continue investing heavily in their students and this funding needs to come from tuition fees. Education costs money, but the results should be impressive.
In the US, where tuition fees are considered to be high, graduate entrepreneurs still account for thirty per cent of the growth in the economy.
Whilst we’re not after, specifically, entrepreneurial graduates; we are after a high calibre of students to be training in the intricacies of Cloud Computing, and many of these will have an entrepreneurial spirit, which will be needed to continue growing the cloud.
Yes there are other training methods, but the sharpest minds will need University to hone their skills and they will require the latest technology to train with. All of which costs money.
The cloud will reap the benefits in the next ten years, as will the graduates who went to University.
Do you agree of disagree with this?
Next week: Against Tuition Fees.
Please note that this blog post does not necessarily express the views of Resource on Demand or their team.