Bill Gates and the End of the University

Bill Gates recently predicted that "place-based colleges" would become less important, saying they were good for parties, but were becoming less important for learning. We all know that the costs of college education have risen lately. We also all know about the Internet! MIT has put many of its courses on-line, and some of them have attracted students around the world, most notably a course in introductory physics.

Do we still need place-based universities? Do they provide something that the web cannot? Do you think NCSU will still be around 40 years from now? 90 years from now? As we look at the combination of rising costs, with states financial troubles, it seems like something will have to give.