How to rebuild higher education from the ground up for the
twenty-first century.
Higher education is in crisis. It is too expensive, ineffective, and
impractical for many of the world's students. But how would you reinvent
it for the twenty-first century--how would you build it from the ground
up? Many have speculated about changing higher education, but Minerva
has actually created a new kind of university program. Its founders
raised the funding, assembled the team, devised the curriculum and
pedagogy, recruited the students, hired the faculty, and implemented a
bold vision of a new and improved higher education. This book explains
that vision and how it is being realized.
The Minerva curriculum focuses on "practical knowledge" (knowledge
students can use to adapt to a changing world); its pedagogy is based on
scientific research on learning; it uses a novel technology platform to
deliver small seminars in real time; and it offers a hybrid residential
model where students live together, rotating through seven cities around
the world. Minerva equips students with the cognitive tools they need to
succeed in the world after graduation, building the core competencies of
critical thinking, creative thinking, effective communication, and
effective interaction. The book offers readers both the story of this
grand and sweeping idea and a blueprint for transforming higher
education.
