# COVID on Campus **URL:** **By** Bryan Caplan, Paul Matzko **Published:** May 28, 2020 --- Even if universities re-open in the fall, will higher education snap back to normal? While universities debate whether to re-open on schedule for the fall semester, it's expected that hundreds of colleges that were in financial distress will shutter their doors. While that might seem like obvious evidence of decline in higher education, economist Bryan Caplan suggests otherwise. In his controversial book, _The Case Against Education_, he argues that higher ed does relatively little, well, 'ed.' COVID-19 might just help expose the systemic failures of higher education in America. Could COVID-19 help us rethink how we do higher education? What was wrong with higher education before the pandemic that we could fix now? How is higher education just a signaling mechanism to employers? ## Further Reading: [The Case against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money](https://www.amazon.com/Case-against-Education-System-Waste/dp/0691174652), written by Bryan Caplan [College Calendars in the Pandemic: No Fall Break and Home by Thanksgiving](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/19/us/coronavirus-college-fall-semester.html), written by Shawn Hubler [How the Coronavirus Pandemic Has Shattered the Myth of College in America](https://www.newyorker.com/news/us-journal/how-the-coronavirus-pandemic-has-shattered-the-myth-of-college-in-america), written by Masha Gessen ## Related Content: [College: Too Costly, Too Little Learning, Too Much Underemployment](https://www.libertarianism.org/podcasts/free-thoughts/college-too-costly-too-little-learning-too-much-underemployment), Free Thoughts Podcast [Cracks in the Ivory Tower: A Dispiriting Assessment of Higher Education](https://www.libertarianism.org/columns/cracks-ivory-tower-dispiriting-assessment-higher-education), written by Aeon Skoble [The Education Apocalypse: How It Happened and How to Survive It](https://www.libertarianism.org/podcasts/free-thoughts/the-education-apocalypse-how-it-happened-and-how-to-survive-it), Free Thoughts Podcast