Earlier this afternoon, President Spanier spoke with CNN news anchor Ali Velshi on the state of higher education in the United States. There has been much discussion about the United States lagging behind the rest of the world by falling from first to 12th in the share of adults ages 25 to 34 with postsecondary degrees, with 40.4 percent holding a college degree. Canada takes the first spot with 55.8 percent.

President Spanier spoke to CNN about why the US rate is so low compared to other developed nations. He believes that the US isn’t lagging, but that the rest of the “world is catching up to us.” He also notes that “90% of the 4000 colleges and universities in the Unites States will admit practically anyone with a high school degree, which means that many students are unprepared for college.” Which would attribute to low graduation numbers.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates weighs in saying that he believes that “place-based college education will be 5 times less important in the future.” President Spanier agrees stating that “the single greatest unrecognized trend in higher education is hybrid learning, melding web-based learning with traditional classroom based teaching.” His opinion is easily shown by the number of web classes offered by Penn State, both at the physical campuses and through the World Campus.