College Becomes Social Credentialing

As instructional quality and in-person faculty decline, students will increasingly treat campus attendance as a way to build social networks, rituals, and status — the parts of college that AI and online courses can't fully replicate. Universities will respond by focusing resources on marquee experiences and monetizing campus amenities while outsourcing or diluting median academic provision. — If true, the shift reframes higher education policy from teaching quality and credentialing to managing social infrastructure, access, and inequality tied to experiential campus consumption.