I haven't followed <i>everything</i> he has said about college education, but I do believe he doesn't hate universities so much as their current value proposition.<p>The amount of debt students have to take on now to get a degree, in contrast to what a motivated person can learn and do on their own now with alternative educational sources and a cheap computer, means that most of that debt is paying for just the credential, whose value is being increasingly undermined while its cost continues increasing.<p>So he believes student loan debt is the next big financial bubble due to collapse, given that there is more of it than credit card debt [1], and that it's being loaned for any major regardless of its expected ROI, among other things.<p>1. <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/college-inc/post/student-loans-surpass-auto-credit-card-debt/2012/03/06/gIQARFQnuR_blog.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/college-inc/post/student...</a>
A few things:<p>- Thiel really hates that college puts undergraduates in serious debt. Stanford doesn't -- take a look at its financial aid.<p>- When someone decides to drop out to pursue a startup or stay in school, it's often not just about the "value" they think education has. Travis Kiefer is the entrepreneur's entrepreneur: he can survive on the adrenaline of his company until it succeeds. He lives for this. I considered senior year with my best friends a once in a lifetime opportunity and didn't drop out. I live for this.<p>- This startup class shouldn't surprise anyone from Stanford's perspective. It has encouraged entrepreneurship forever -- there will even be an entrepreneurship themed dorm next year -- and Thiel is as good as any to teach it.<p>- Zuckerberg routinely appears as a guest lecturer in CS106A, the introductory CS class.<p>- As an aside, Stanford can sell out a football game, and the stuff about Khosla's daughters is way exaggerated (I was quoted).
<p><pre><code> "Would Noam Chomsky object to his works being sold at Barnes & Noble?
No, because that's where people buy their books."
- Tom Morello
</code></pre>
Seems like Thiel is finally willing to work within the system to bring about change, rather than quixotically working outside of it.
He doesn't hate college, he just wants us to think more deeply about whether we should go to college. It's gotten more pricey over the years, yet enrollment has increased. College has become the default option for anyone who has the intellectual or financial ability and he questions whether that is good
Maybe he will convince a few Stanford students to focus on their startup before the end of their graduation and drop out!
What is for sure is the more you spend money on your education (with college, an MBA, etc...), the higher the opportunity cost of starting a Company (vs. getting a well paid job). When you drop out, you have nothing to lose, and so you are "all in", which allows you to take bigger risks.
I'm a little confused as to why this is offered as "Computer Science 183". Is "Computer Science" used as a heading for anything computer-related at Stanford, or is this an exception?
A lot of misinformation in this article regarding Peter Thiel's position on higher education in America, but the posters here have addressed that. What I find surprising is that this course, at least from what I read, will not be available online. I know that an online option would require a greater effort on his part, and that he would also have to be a little less personal/direct in his lectures to make it work, but if Peter Thiel believes that self-learners using online educational resources are the future, he should do his part to contribute to that future by doing something like this (a class on startups) in the future for a virtual classroom, perhaps through Udacity.
He doesn't like universities because he thinks they're too costly and not good at preparing students for the real world. He now intends to teach a class that prepares students for the real world and will not increase the marginal cost of their tuition. There doesn't seem to be a contradiction.