Will boundaries of universities whither away?

This is an extract that I recently wrote to a friend who is always excited about finding new ways to teach.

Hi ****,

Universities have started offering online courses. Last semester quite a few students were doing an online course from Harvard ! I think the idea of students registering for such online courses is going to increase rapidly. They get the best faculty to learn from. Perhaps one can also envisage a future where students taking admissions into a single university loses meaning. A student can sit and home and  take individual online courses from any university of their choice. It may be the future in some sense atleast. It sounds good since you aren't restricted by boundaries of universities, countries anymore. It may even be cheaper. Well, there may still be some bounds - infinite number of students surely cannot register for a single course - bandwidth constraints, evaluations and administrative issues (which can be resolved to some extent by technology again). However, number of students who can register for a given course at a given university will certainly increase many folds.

It does sound good. However, a university is also a place where students, faculty meet each other. They talk to each other on variety of topics, just have fun and make merry, build bonds, friendships. A University is not just a place where people learn engineering, science or humanity. It is also a place where people build bonds and live a life. If a brick-mortar university were to get replaced with an online university I will certainly mourn it.

Regards,

Gaurav....