The death of the degree

The death of the degree

By Iryna Volnytska

Published Jul 23, 2026 10:40 am KST

https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/opinion/20260723/the-death-of-the-degree

KYIV — Just as French aristocrats under the ancien régime could hardly imagine the abolition of their noble titles, most of today’s university leaders cannot conceive of a world in which the degrees they confer become worthless pieces of paper. The former were in for a rude awakening in 1790; the latter are barreling toward a similar shock.

No longer a social service, education has become the new infrastructure of power. Whoever controls the development of technical talent controls the future. The countries that understand this have stopped arguing about teaching quality and started measuring how fast knowledge translates into capability. The rest are reforming a 20th-century system and calling it progress.

Large employers like Google, Apple, and IBM now have hiring practices that focus on skills rather than degrees. More than half of employers have gone so far as to drop degree requirements entirely for some roles. Recruiters no longer want to know how much applicants have memorized; they want to know how they make decisions amid uncertainty and how quickly they learn.

Y Combinator funds Stanford dropouts — or people who forgo university altogether. A GitHub profile now says more about what you can build than a college transcript. To be sure, degrees still hold value, but mostly for entry to regulated professions like law and medicine, public-sector jobs, and prestige networks. But notice that this value lies in access, not knowledge.

In an artificial intelligence (AI)-transformed world, capability is the new dividing line. True, a free AI chatbot will explain quantum mechanics to anyone. But access to a tool is not the same as the ability to use it. A chasm is growing between people who can harness AI to solve a hard problem and people who only consume the answers it hands them. The defining skill of the next decade will be orchestration: running several AI agents toward an outcome defined by the individual.

This raises an important question: Is AI in education a threat or an opportunity? My answer is that it is an opportunity, but only for institutions willing to rebuild around the technology. That means overhauling assessment methods, because reproducing knowledge is no longer as important as demonstrating judgment and application skills. The key is to test whether a student can command and critique an AI system, rather than outsource thinking to it. With this shift, AI can become education’s largest-ever scaling lever, providing personalized tutoring at near-zero marginal cost, simulation at scale, and instant feedback.

Consider the live drone-hack simulation that Ukraine’s SET University, where I am president, ran with IronCyber, my cybersecurity startup. When applying AI, it was completed roughly six times faster. The technical layer can be compressed, but the orchestration layer cannot—a reality that the old educational model, which was built to be AI-resistant, fails to grasp.

The university does not know its own value. Its campus, faculty, and academic programs are ostensibly its most prized assets. But in the digital era, data trumps all else. Every interaction a student has with a learning platform leaves a trace of their cognitive processing, speed of adaptation, and capacity to collaborate. Universities sit on terabytes of this information but do little with it.

All this points to the need for AI-native institutions. The dramatic death and rebirth of the edtech sector suggest that such a shift is already underway. The companies that simply moved lectures online are disappearing. The investors who once scaled some of Silicon Valley’s most prominent tech firms are funding their replacements. Outsmart, launched by former Duolingo executives, has raised more than $36 million from Khosla Ventures, Lightspeed, and DST Global on a single promise: to build “the university of the future.”

Other powerful tech players who no longer trust universities have also started building alternatives. Peter Thiel pays young people $100,000 to drop out of school and launch startups. Y Combinator became a university of founders, compressing years of iteration into a few months. And yet, elite universities’ real product was never education—MIT has given away lectures for two decades. It is the network. Four years in the same room builds social capital that compounds for life. That, not the curriculum, is what people pay for.

It follows, then, that the future of the university rests on deliberately designing environments that foster strong connections—which almost no one is doing. Moreover, the focus should be less on the number of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) graduates, and more on the pipeline from university to product. Many have fretted that China graduates more STEM PhDs than the United States. But what sets China apart is the speed with which it turns research into innovation that people can use—a few years, compared to a decade or more elsewhere.

Most of the world treats education as a cultural mission to be improved at the margins, even though it has become a crucial determinant of strategic advantage. Why else would Canada, Germany, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates have fast-track visas to import tech workers that someone else paid to train? Developing talent for export is a subsidy to other economies. The question that should guide education reformers is how fast they can convert a person’s knowledge into a country’s gain, before someone else beats them to it.

Iryna Volnytska, founder and CEO of cybersecurity startup IronCyber, is president of SET University, a Ukrainian tech institution that offers four master’s programs and hosts an accelerator and two embedded startups. This article was distributed by Project Syndicate.

Singapore Salary Guide 2026: Are you earning as much as your peers?

Are you earning as much as your peers?

2026-07-28

https://www.straitstimes.com/business/are-you-earning-as-much-as-your-peers1

Singapore Salary Guide 2026

Are you earning as much as your peers?

https://www.straitstimes.com/business/are-you-earning-as-much-as-your-peers1

Chinese movie 沙漏 ---- Good movie

https://youtu.be/uh_vsfKvcFw?is=IKAECPTMPFQmqj2A

https://youtu.be/uh_vsfKvcFw?is=IKAECPTMPFQmqj2A

My Weight Statistics (2026-07-28) - Monthly Weight Measurement on the 28th of Each Month Since 28 May 2007

My Weight Statistics (2026-07-28) - Monthly Weight Measurement on the 28^th of Each Month Since 28 May 2007

 

My 19-year Weight Management Records from 2007-05-28 to 2026-07-28 (by Calorie Restriction, i.e. Dietary Energy Restriction) (Ref. JN1):

  

My 19-year Weight Management Records from 2007-05-28 to 2026-07-28 (by Calorie Restriction, i.e. Dietary Energy Restriction) (Ref. JN1):

Note: According to the Singapore Health Promotion Board, a Healthy BMI is greater than18.5 and less than 23.0. A BMI less than 18.5 would mean that the individual is at risk of nutrition deficiency diseases and osteoporosis. 

A BMI equal or greater than 23.0 would mean that the individual is at risk of obesity-related diseases. (Ref: DD-Md2022J28)

As of 2026-07-28,

Note: ### indicates BMI = 23 or > 23

Total number of Monthly Weight monitored was 230 (100%)

The no. of times my healthy BMI between 18.5 and 22.9 was 225 (97.826%)

The no. of times my unhealthy BMI equal or more than 23.000 was 5 (2.174%)

=======================

2007

2007-05-28 morning, my weight = 65.0 kg, BMI = 23.588###

2007-06-28 morning, my weight = 61.0 kg, BMI = 22.136

2007-07-28 morning, my weight = 59.0 kg, BMI = 21.410

2007-08-28 morning, my weight = 58.7 kg, BMI = 21.302

2007-09-28 morning, my weight = 57.5 kg, BMI = 20.866

2007-10-28 morning, my weight = 57.5 kg, BMI = 20.866

2007-11-28 morning, my weight = 56.2 kg, BMI = 20.394

2007-12-28 morning, my weight = 55.5 kg, BMI = 20.140

2008

2008-01-28 morning, my weight = 54.8 kg, BMI = 19.886

2008-02-28 morning, my weight = 54.8 kg, BMI = 19.886

2008-03-28 morning, my weight = 54.5 kg, BMI = 19.777

2008-04-28 morning, my weight = 54.4 kg, BMI = 19.741

2008-05-28 morning, my weight = 54.1 kg, BMI = 19.632

2008-06-28 morning, my weight = 54.6 kg, BMI = 19.814

2008-07-28 morning, my weight = 54.5 kg, BMI = 19.777

2008-08-28 morning, my weight = 54.3 kg, BMI = 19.705

2008-09-28 morning, my weight = 54.9 kg, BMI = 19.923

2008-10-28 morning, my weight = 55.3 kg, BMI = 20.068

2008-11-28 morning, my weight = 54.5 kg, BMI = 19.777

2008-12-28 morning, my weight = 55.6 kg, BMI = 20.177

2009

2009-01-28 morning, my weight = 54.8 kg, BMI = 19.886

2009-02-28 morning, my weight = 55.9 kg, BMI = 20.285

2009-03-28 morning, my weight = 54.8 kg, BMI = 19.886

2009-04-28 morning, my weight = 55.3 kg, BMI = 20.068

2009-05-28 morning, my weight = 55.4 kg, BMI = 20.104.

2009-06-28 morning, my weight = 55.2 kg, BMI = 20.031

2009-07-28 morning, my weight = 55.1 kg, BMI = 19.995

2009-08-28 morning, my weight = 55.2 kg, BMI = 20.031

2009-09-28 morning, my weight = 56.3 kg, BMI = 20.431

2009-10-28 morning, my weight = 55.8 kg, BMI = 20.249

2009-11-28 morning, my weight = 56.2 kg, BMI = 20.394

2009-12-28 morning, my weight = 56.1 kg, BMI = 20.358

2010

2010-01-28 morning, my weight = 55.6 kg, BMI = 20.177

2010-02-28 morning, my weight = 56.5 kg, BMI = 20.503

2010-03-28 morning, my weight = 56.4 kg, BMI = 20.467

2010-04-28 morning, my weight = 55.7 kg, BMI = 20.213

2010-05-28 morning, my weight = 55.1 kg, BMI = 19.995

2010-06-28 morning, my weight = 56.4 kg, BMI = 20.467

2010-07-28 morning, my weight = 55.5 kg, BMI = 20.140

2010-08-28 morning, my weight = 55.8 kg, BMI = 20.249

2010-09-28 morning, my weight = 55.8 kg, BMI = 20.249

2010-10-28 morning, my weight = 55.4 kg, BMI = 20.104

2010-11-28 morning, my weight = 55.6 kg, BMI = 20.177

2010-12-28 morning, my weight = 55.5 kg, BMI = 20.140

2011

2011-01-28 morning, my weight = 55.4 kg, BMI = 20.104

2011-02-28 morning, my weight = 56.5 kg, BMI = 20.503

2011-03-28 morning, my weight = 55.6 kg, BMI = 20.177

2011-04-28 morning, my weight = 55.7 kg, BMI = 20.213

2011-05-28 morning, my weight = 55.6 kg, BMI = 20.177

2011-06-28 morning, my weight = 56.3 kg, BMI = 20.431

2011-07-28 morning, my weight = 56.5 kg, BMI = 20.503

2011-08-28 morning, my weight = 56.9 kg, BMI = 20.649

2011-09-28 morning, my weight = 56.2 kg, BMI = 20.394

2011-10-28 morning, my weight = 56.8 kg, BMI = 20.613

2011-11-28 morning, my weight = 59.0 kg, BMI = 21.410

2011-12-28 morning, my weight = 60.3 kg, BMI = 21.882

2012

2012-01-28 morning, my weight = 61.5 kg, BMI = 22.318

2012-02-28 morning, my weight = 62.7 kg, BMI = 22.753

2012-03-28 morning, my weight = 62.5 kg, BMI = 22.681

2012-04-28 morning, my weight = 61.3 kg, BMI = 22.246

2012-05-28 morning, my weight = 60.7 kg, BMI = 22.028

2012-06-28 morning, my weight = 60.6 kg, BMI = 21.992

2012-07-28 morning, my weight = 61.2 kg, BMI = 22.209

2012-08-28 morning, my weight = 60.8 kg, BMI = 22.064

2012-09-28 morning, my weight = 61.5 kg, BMI = 22.318**

2012-10-28 morning, my weight = 62.3 kg, BMI = 22.608

2012-11-28 morning, my weight = 63.4 kg, BMI = 23.008###

2012-12-28 morning, my weight = 62.9 kg, BMI = 22.826

2013

2013-01-28 morning, my weight = 63.0 kg, BMI = 22.863

2013-02-28 morning, my weight = 62.1 kg, BMI = 22.536

2013-03-28 morning, my weight = 61.5 kg, BMI = 22.318

2013-04-28 morning, my weight = 63.1 kg, BMI = 22.899****

2013-05-28 morning, my weight = 62.3 kg, BMI = 22.608

2013-06-28 morning, my weight = 62.2 kg, BMI = 22.572

2013-07-28 morning, my weight = 62.4 kg, BMI = 22.645

2013-08-28 morning, my weight = 62.6 kg BMI = 22.717

2013-09-28 morning, my weight = 62.4 kg BMI = 22.645**

2013-10-28 morning, my weight = 62.3 kg BMI = 22.609

2013-11-28 morning, my weight = 63.1 kg BMI = 22.899

2013-12-28 morning, my weight = 64.4 kg BMI = 23.371###

2014

2014-01-28 morning, my weight = 63.6 kg, BMI = 23.080###

2014-02-28 morning, my weight = 63.3 kg, BMI = 22.971

2014-03-28 morning, my weight = 62.7 kg, BMI = 22.753

2014-04-28 morning, my weight = 62.7 kg, BMI = 22.753

2014-05-28 morning, my weight = 62.9 kg, BMI = 22.826

2014-06-28 morning, my weight = 63.1 kg BMI = 22.899

2014-07-28 morning, my weight = 62.7 kg, BMI = 22.753

2014-08-28 morning, my weight = 62.2 kg, BMI = 22.572

2014-09-28 morning, my weight = 61.2 kg, BMI = 22.209

2014-10-28 morning, my weight = 61.4 kg, BMI = 22.282

2014-11-28 morning, my weight = 60.2 kg, BMI = 21.846

2014-12-28 morning, my weight = 60.8 kg, BMI = 22.064

2015

2015-01-28 morning, my weight = 61.3 kg, BMI = 22.246

2015-02-28 morning, my weight = 61.8 kg, BMI = 22.427

2015-03-28 morning, my weight = 61.8 kg, BMI = 22.427

2015-04-28 morning, my weight = 62,5. kg, BMI = 22.681

2015-05-28 morning, my weight = 62.4 kg, BMI = 22.645

2015-06-28 morning, my weight = 63.6 kg, BMI = 23.080###

2015-07-28 morning, my weight = 62.3 kg BMI = 22.609

2015-08-28 morning, my weight = 62.2 kg, BMI = 22.572

2015-09-28 morning, my weight = 63.0 kg, BMI = 22.863

2015-10-28 morning, my weight = 63.2 kg, BMI = 22.935

2015-11-28 morning, my weight = 62.6 kg, BMI = 22.717

2015-12-28 morning, my weight = 62.3 kg BMI = 22.609

2016

2016-01-28 morning, my weight = 63.0 kg, BMI = 22.863

2016-02-28 morning, my weight = 62.8 kg, BMI = 22.790

2016-03-28 morning, my weight = 62.0 kg, BMI = 22.499

2016-04-28 morning, my weight = 62.0 kg, BMI = 22.499

2016-05-28 morning, my weight = 62.4 kg, BMI = 22.645

2016-06-28 morning, my weight = 62.1 kg, BMI = 22.536

2016-07-28 morning, my weight = 62.2 kg, BMI = 22.572

2016-08-28 morning, my weight = 62.6 kg, BMI = 22.717

2016-09-28 morning, my weight = 62.8 kg, BMI = 22.790

2016-10-28 morning, my weight = 62,5. kg, BMI = 22.681

2016-11-28 morning, my weight = 62.1 kg, BMI = 22.536

2016-12-28 morning, my weight = 62.3 kg, BMI = 22.608

2017

2017-01-28 morning, my weight = 62.9 kg, BMI = 22.826

2017-02-28 morning, my weight = 62.4 kg, BMI = 22.644

2017-03-28 morning, my weight = 62.8 kg, BMI = 22.789

2017-04-28 morning, my weight = 62.3 kg, BMI = 22.609

2017-05-28 morning, my weight = 62.2 kg, BMI = 22.572

2017-06-28 morning, my weight = 62.6 kg, BMI = 22.717

2017-07-28 morning, my weight = 62.4 kg, BMI = 22.645

2017-08-28 morning, my weight = 61.9 kg, BMI = 22.463

2017-09-28 morning, my weight = 62.0 kg, BMI = 22.499

2017-10-28 morning, my weight = 62.0 kg, BMI = 22.499

2017-11-28 morning, my weight = 61.5 kg, BMI = 22.318

2017-12-28 morning, my weight = 61.5 kg, BMI = 22.318

2018

My Weight 2018-01-28 0934 hr 61.0 kg BMI 22.136

My Weight 2018-02-28 0915 hr 60.7 kg BMI 22.027

My Weight 2018-03-28 0620 hr 61.0 kg BMI 22.136

My Weight 2018-04-28 1005 hr 61.7 kg BMI 22.390

My Weight 2018-05-28 0856 hr 60.5 kg BMI 21.955

My Weight 2018-06-28 0600 hr 61.4 kg BMI 22.281

My Weight 2018-07-28 0600 hr 62.2 kg BMI 22.572

My Weight 2018-08-28 0720 hr 61.4 kg BMI 22.281

My Weight 2018-09-28 0805 hr 62.1 kg BMI 22.535

My Weight 2018-10-28 0750 hr 61.3 kg BMI 22.24

My Weight 2018-11-28 1000 hr 61.5 kg BMI 22.318

My Weight 2018-12-28 0650 hr 62.5 kg BMI 22.681

2019

2019-01-28 at 1000 hr 60.9 kg BMI 22.100

2019-02-28 at 0946 hr 61.0 kg BMI 22.136

2019-03-28 at 0700 hr 62.4 kg BMI 22.644

2019-04-28 at 0828 hr 62.9 kg BMI 22.826

2019-05-28 at 0745 hr 62.4 kg BMI 22.826

2019-06-28 at 0650 hr 62.4 kg BMI 22.644

2019-07-28 at 0736 hr 62.8 kg BMI 22.789

2019-08-28 at 0629 hr 62.4 kg BMI 22.644

2019-09-28 at 0644 hr 61.9 kg BMI 22.463

2019-10-28 at 0740 hr 62.5 kg BMI 22.681

2019-11-28 at 0632 hr 62.8 kg BMI 22.789

2019-12-28 at 0726 hr 62.5 kg BMI 22.681

2020

My Weight 2020-01-28 0625 HR  62.6 kg BMI 22.717

My Weight 2020-02-28 0728 HR  62.3 kg BMI 22.608

My Weight 2020-03-28 0649 HR  61.4 kg BMI 22.281

My Weight 2020-04-28 0810 HR  62.0 kg BMI 22.499

My Weight 2020-05-28 0714 HR  62.3 kg BMI 22.608

My Weight 2020-06-28 0757 HR  60.2 kg BMI 21.846

My Weight 2020-07-28 0715 HR  61.6 kg BMI 22.354

My Weight 2020-08-28 0707 HR  61.1 kg BMI 22.173

My Weight 2020-09-28 0609 HR  60.8 kg BMI 22.064

My Weight 2020-10-28 0818 HR  60.7 kg BMI 22.027

My Weight 2020-11-28 0706 HR  60.9 kg BMI 22.100

My Weight 2020-12-28 0631 HR  60.5 kg BMI 21.955

2021

My Weight 2021-01-28 0638 HR  61.3 kg BMI 22.245

My Weight 2021-02-28 0741 HR  61.2 kg BMI 22.209

My Weight 2021-03-28 0659 HR  61.3 kg BMI 22.245

My Weight 2021-04-28 0659 HR  61.1 kg BMI 22.173

My Weight 2021-05-28 0618 HR  61.1 kg BMI 22.173

My Weight 2021-06-28 0604 HR  61.3 kg BMI 22.245

My Weight 2021-07-28 0642 HR  61.2 kg BMI 22.209

My Weight 2021-08-28 0653 HR  61.5 kg BMI 22.318

My Weight 2021-09-28 0618 HR  61.5 kg BMI 22.318

My Weight 2021-10-28 0549 HR  61.0 kg BMI 22.136

My Weight 2021-11-28 0630 HR  61.3 kg BMI 22.245

My Weight 2021-12-28 0528 HR  61.6 kg BMI 22.354

======================================

2022

My Weight 2022-01-28 0910 HR  61.1 kg  BMI 22.173

My Weight 2022-02-28 0642 HR  61.2 kg  BMI 22.209

My Weight 2022-03-28 0649 HR  61.4 kg  BMI 22.281

My Weight 2022-04-28 0649 HR  61.4 kg  BMI 22.281

My Weight 2022-05-28 0549 HR  61.0 kg  BMI 22.136

My Weight 2022-06-28 0549 HR  61.0 kg  BMI 22.136

My Weight 2022-07-28 0700 HR  60.6 kg  BMI 21.991

My Weight 2022-08-28 0640 HR  61.3 kg  BMI 22.245

My Weight 2022-09-28 0738 HR  61.7 kg  BMI 22.390

My Weight 2022-10-28 0708 HR  61.5 kg  BMI 22.318

My Weight 2022-11-28 0706 HR  60.9 kg BMI 22.100

My Weight 2022-12-28 0722 HR  61.1 kg  BMI 22.173

========

2023

My Weight 2023-01-28 0537 HR 60.9 kg BMI 22.100

My Weight 2023-02-28 0515 HR 61.4 kg  BMI 22.281

My Weight 2023-03-28 0606 HR  61.3 kg  BMI 22.245

My Weight 2023-04-28 0738 HR  61.3 kg  BMI 22.245

My Weight 2023-05-28 0721 HR  61.0 kg  BMI 22.136

My Weight 2023-06-28 0641 HR  61.2 kg  BMI 22.209

My Weight 2023-07-28 0700 HR  60.9 kg BMI 22.100

My Weight 2023-08-28 0655 HR  61.3 kg  BMI 22.245

My Weight 2022-09-28 0738 HR  61.7 kg  BMI 22.390

My Weight 2022-10-28 0708 HR  61.5 kg  BMI 22.318

My Weight 2023-11-28 0612 HR 61.4 kg  BMI 22.281

My Weight 2023-12-28 0734HR  61.3 kg  BMI 22.245

========

2024

My Weight 2024-01-28 0734 HR  61.3 kg BMI 22.245

My Weight 2024-02-28 0510 HR  61.6 kg BMI 22.354

My Weight 2024-03-28 0642 HR  60.9 kg BMI 22.100

My Weight 2024-04-28 0721 HR  61.1 kg BMI 22.173

My Weight 2024-05-28 0537 HR  61.3 kg BMI 22.245

My Weight 2024-06-28 0651 HR  61.5 kg BMI 22.318

My Weight 2024-07-28 0612 HR 61.4 kg  BMI 22.281

My Weight 2024-08-28 0747 HR  61.1 kg BMI 22.173

My Weight 2024-09-28 0640 HR  61.1 kg BMI 22.173

My Weight 2024-10-28 0546 HR  61.5 kg BMI 22.318

My Weight 2024-11-28 0706 HR 61.4 kg  BMI 22.281

My Weight 2024-12-28 0649 HR 61.9 kg BMI 22.463

=======================================

2025

My Weight 2025-01-28 0625 HR  61.6 kg BMI 22.354

My Weight 2025-02-28 0742 HR  61.5 kg BMI 22.318

My Weight 2025-03-28 0640 HR  61.6 kg BMI 22.354

My Weight 2025-04-28 0734 HR  61.7 kg  BMI 22.390

My Weight 2025-05-28 0738 HR  61.8 kg  BMI 22.427

My Weight 2025-06-28 0606 HR  62.6 kg  BMI 22.717

My Weight 2025-07-28 0757 HR  62.7 kg  BMI 22.753

My Weight 2025-08-28 0546 HR  62.6 kg, BMI 22.717

My Weight 2025-09-28 0540 HR  62.2 kg BMI 22.572

My Weight 2025-10-28 0516 HR  62.4 kg BMI 22.644

My Weight 2025-11-28 0810 HR  62.1 kg BMI 22.535

My Weight 2025-12-28 0702 HR  62.2 kg BMI 22.572

=========================

2026

My Weight 2026-01-28 0733 HR 61.9 kg BMI 22.463

My Weight 2026-02-28 0649 HR 62.4 kg BMI 22.644

My Weight 2026-03-28 0511 HR 62.1 kg BMI 22.535

My Weight 2026-04-28 0523 HR 62.4 kg BMI 22.644

My Weight 2026-05-28 0521 HR 61.8 kg  BMI 22.427

My Weight 2026-06-28 0821 HR 61.8 kg  BMI 22.427

My Weight 2026-07-28 0739 HR 61.4 kg  BMI 22.281

=========================

Note:

My current BMI is within the healthy range of 18.5 to 22.9.

For me, the range of healthy weight is 50.9786 kg (BMI = 18.5) to 63.10324 kg (BMI = 22.9).

People with BMI values of 23 kg/m2 (or 25 kg/m2 according to some sources) and above have been found to be at risk of developing heart disease and diabetes.

To be healthy, I must have a healthy weight.

Be as lean as possible without being underweight, as recommended by World Cancer Prevention Foundation, United Kingdom.

=================================

Note: On 2021-05-28, I removed the unimportant details of old records from My Weight Management Records.

=================================

Ref. WeightManagement

My Weight 2026-07-28: BMI 22.281

My Weight

2026-07-28

0739 HR 

61.4 kg

BMI 22.281