Higher education in America is beset with bad habits and inefficiencies, mainly because it’s overwhelmingly a non-profit venture suffused with government subsidies and controls.

Among those bad habits is the “Carnegie Unit.” The Carnegie Unit goes back to 1906, an attempt to measure college learning by seat time spent in classrooms. In today’s Martin Center article, Walt Gardner argues that it’s time to ditch the Carnegie Unit.

Gardner writes:

Although seat-time is easy to calculate, it flies in the face of the principle of individual differences. Why can’t students who bring to the classroom the knowledge and skills they acquired elsewhere be given credit towards a bachelor’s degree? Even the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, which developed the system, wants to consign it to history.

What would be better? Gardner (and many others) would like to see American higher ed switch to a competency model where students would move at their own pace toward learning objectives.

Read the whole thing.