CGHE Webinar 258

The death of human capital? Its failed promise and how to renew it in an age of disruption

Date: Tuesday, 14 December 2021 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Location: Zoom webinar
Speaker(s):
  • Hugh Lauder, University of Bath
  • Sin Yi Cheung, Cardiff University

Event Materials

This event is now archived and we are pleased to provide the following event media and assets, along with the original event overview.

In this seminar, we argue that the human capital story is one of false promise: investing in learning isn’t the road to higher earnings and national prosperity. Returns to education is far from evenly distributed among all graduates. Drawing on empirical data on the highly stratified labour market by gender, class and race, we show how government higher education policies, led by orthodox human capital theorists, are flawed. Rather than abandoning human capital theory, however, we redefine human capital in the age of smart machines by presenting a new human capital theory that addresses the challenge that automation and artificial intelligence will result in the end of waged work. The fundamental problem lies in a lack of quality jobs offering interesting worthwhile and rewarding opportunities. We conclude with an alternative vision to higher education.

Event Materials

This event is now archived and we are pleased to provide the following event media and assets, along with the original event overview.

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