On the need for significant reform in university education, especially in aerospace engineering

This paper discusses the need for academia to be more responsive to the needs of students and society. The slow speed of change in academia is causing our educational programs to lose value. Technology has been advancing at an exponential rate for decades, yet academia changes at almost glacial speed. While the example used herein (engineering, and in particular aerospace engineering) is one familiar to the author, the ideas in this paper may well apply to all academic disciplines, including Science and Liberal Arts. The problems are due to rapid changes in technology, inflated bureaucracies at universities, the emphasis on revenue and research, and limits to human learning. There is no question that this is the Information Age, yet academia has not adjusted to this dramatic new world. Students need to understand this and be pro-active to prepare themselves for the future and choose the right courses, majors, and universities.