<p>I think Sakky’s idea might be more workable if the student’s progress was broken down into more stages rather than “graduate or not”, perhaps year by year, where the student passes from stage 1 to stage 2 when the student has made one year’s progress toward some major.</p>
<p>Each stage would cost a certain amount of money, and, rather than being free, it could be get something like half of your money back for the stage you did not complete. This kind of system would make the college put a strong focus on student progress. Also, the student gets some kind of partial degree, which is better than nothing.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine many colleges doing something like this, though it is fun to dream things up.</p>