Kevin Carey, policy director for Education Sector, an independent think tank in Washington, D.C., believes higher education could be the next industry to suffer a decline in the Internet age.

The Internet has already dealt a fatal blow to newspapers, the once dominant source of news and information.

Writing in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Carey warns that America's colleges and universities could be the next victim of the Internet.

From Carey's column:

Newspapers are dying. Are universities next? The parallels between them are closer than they appear. Both industries are in the business of creating and communicating information. Paradoxically, both are threatened by the way technology has made that easier than ever before.

While the elite schools probably can weather the expansion of college offerings over the Internet, there will be victims, Carey argues: "Less-selective private colleges and regional public universities, by contrast — the higher-education equivalents of the city newspaper — are in real danger."

Read the full column, "What Colleges Should Learn From Newspapers' Decline" at The Chronicle of Higher Education Web site.