Why We Need a New Kind of Higher Education

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen M. Kosslyn ◽  
Ben Nelson
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Creative Thinking ◽  
Practical Knowledge ◽  
Effective Interaction ◽  
Significant Problem ◽  
Global Context ◽  
The World ◽  
To Come ◽  
Curricular Model ◽  
Enhance Student Learning

Minerva is a response to problems that beset higher education writ large. We focus in large part on the most significant problem, which centers on the value of higher education. We address this problem by teaching “practical knowledge,” which is knowledge the students can use to achieve their goals. Practical knowledge is rooted in critical thinking, creative thinking, effective communication and effective interaction. We also have considered in depth how to teach this material effectively; all of our pedagogy is informed by the science of learning, which has led us to develop new forms of active learning. In addition, we have developed a software platform that supports our unique pedagogical and curricular model. This platform provides tools that not only facilitate teaching but also--and more importantly--enhance student learning. Furthermore, we believe that the future is increasingly international and thus our students learn to use practical knowledge in a global context. To achieve this, no one nationality is a majority—so students learn from each other—and students live and study together in up to seven different cities around the world. Finally, the Minerva talent agency supports our students from the beginning of their tenure through their post-graduate career, helping them succeed for many years to come.

Building the Intentional University

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bob Kerrey
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Creative Thinking ◽  
Practical Knowledge ◽  
Core Competencies ◽  
Effective Interaction ◽  
First Century ◽  
Cognitive Tools ◽  
Curriculum And Pedagogy ◽  
Novel Technology ◽  
The World

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.

scholarly journals Transcending borders in higher education: Internationalisation policies in Sweden

2021 ◽  
pp. 147490412098838
Author(s):  
Nafsika Alexiadou ◽  
Linda Rönnberg
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Mobility ◽  
European Policy ◽  
Policy Objective ◽  
Global Context ◽  
Economic Competitiveness ◽  
Policy Ideas ◽  
The World ◽  
Internationalisation Strategy ◽  
Internationalisation Strategies

This article examines the national and European policy contexts that shaped the Swedish internationalisation agenda in higher education since 2000, the policy ideas that were mobilised to promote it, and the national priorities that steered higher education debates. The analysis highlights how domestic and European policy priorities, as well as discourses around increasing global economic reach and building solidarity across the world, have produced an internationalisation strategy that is distinctly ‘national’. Drawing on the analysis of the most recent internationalisation strategies we argue that the particular Swedish approach to internationalisation has its ideational foundations in viewing higher education as a political instrument to promote social mobility and justice, as well as a means to develop economic competitiveness and employability capacity. In addition, internationalisation has been used to legitimise national reform goals, but also as a policy objective on its own with the ambition to position Sweden as a competitive knowledge nation in a global context.

Co-creation and the state in a global context

2020 ◽  
pp. 23-40
Author(s):  
Sue Brownill ◽  
Oscar Natividad Puig
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Mexico City ◽  
The South ◽  
Global Context ◽  
The World ◽  
Local Stakeholders ◽  
Global North ◽  
Global Nature ◽  
To Come ◽  
North And South

This chapter draws on debates about the need for theory to ‘see from the South’ (Watson, 2009) to critically reflect on the increasingly global nature of co-creation both as a focus for research and for initiatives from governments around the world. It explores whether current understandings of co-creation narratives, which have tended to come from the Global North, can adequately characterise and understand the experience from the South, and the resulting need to decolonise knowledge and conduct research into the diverse ways in which co-creation can be constituted. It goes on to illustrate these debates by exploring the differing contexts for co-creation created by state-civil society relations in the project’s participating countries. These show that, while distinct contrasts emerge, it is important to move beyond dichotomies of north and south to explore the spaces of participation and resistance that are created within different contexts and how these are navigated by projects and communities engaged in co-creation. The chapter draws on material from interviews with local stakeholders and academics involved in the Co-Creation project and project conferences in Rio, Mexico City and Berlin.

scholarly journals Internationalisation and Transformation of Higher Education in ASEAN Countries: A Distinctive Emerging Approach

2018 ◽  
pp. 540-553
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Equitable Access ◽  
The West ◽  
British Council ◽  
Global Context ◽  
Development Stages ◽  
Policy Frameworks ◽  
The World ◽  
Asean Countries

One recent transformation in the global higher education (Hénard et al., 2012) ecosystem has been internationalisation of HE institutions. This paper draws on a recent, major in-depth investigation into the policy frameworks which underpin international higher education (IHE) in the ten nations of ASEAN. Supported by the British Council, the project places IHE approaches in the ASEAN region into the global context. Based on an assessment tool of the strength of IHE policies in over 40 countries worldwide covering student/staff mobility, quality assurance and equitable access/sustainability, the project shows that while across the region countries may be at different development stages of their IHE policy frameworks, there is evidence of regional commitment to IHE at the policy and institutional level, which compares favorably with other parts of the world. The paper argues that the rise of nationalist governments in various parts of the world, particularly in the west, may threaten internationalisation in dynamic HE systems. However, a distinctive approach to IHE may be developing in the ASEAN region which challenges nationalistic approaches and which is fostering innovation and collaboration. This ‘ASEAN centric’ approach to IHE has the potential to strengthen HE systems across the region, as well as the development of ASEAN itself.

Butenam

2019 ◽  
pp. 14-44
Author(s):  
Nancy Shoemaker
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
Practical Knowledge ◽  
The Other ◽  
Monetary Rewards ◽  
The World ◽  
Returning Home ◽  
Commercial Networks ◽  
Knowledge Brokers ◽  
To Come ◽  
Pragmatic Knowledge

This chapter provides an overview of the sandalwood and bêche-de-mer trades, which brought the majority of Americans to Fiji and through which much of the earliest information about Fiji spread to the rest of the world. The American seafarers who came to Fiji for sandalwood and bêche-de-mer earned a slight share of the wealth generated but derived additional satisfaction from their time in the islands. Their unique experiences granted them a rarefied, socially elevating expertise. Returning home with fantastic stories and curiously wrought souvenirs, they became knowledge brokers whose firsthand observations shaped American perceptions of Fiji and Fiji islanders for decades to come. They produced two kinds of knowledge, one pragmatic and logistical, the other ethnographic and ideological. Practical knowledge made navigation safer and faster, fostered commercial networks and routines, and identified exploitable natural resources. Ethnographic knowledge intersected with pragmatic knowledge but resulted in more than monetary rewards. By reporting on the bizarre customs of Fijians, Americans consigned its people to the opposite end of the humanity spectrum and affirmed for a larger public Americans' cultural superiority.

A University–Industry Collaborative Response to the Growing Global Demand for Student Talent

2013 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanna Julia Vauterin ◽  
Lassi Linnanen ◽  
Karl-Erik Michelsen
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Knowledge Transfer ◽  
International Student ◽  
Phenomenological Approach ◽  
Global Dimension ◽  
Market Knowledge ◽  
Global Context ◽  
Global Demand ◽  
The World ◽  
University Industry

The supply of student talent is now taking on an increasingly global dimension and this has extended the breadth of university–industry interaction. Set in the context of a rapidly growing international student market, knowledge transfer between academia and business through global student talent supply is an emerging practice. This paper introduces the philosophical and methodological viewpoints and arguments underlying a forthcoming study of university–industry partnering in the global context for higher education. As such, the authors are not seeking answers to the question, but rather reflecting on how answers may be obtained. They propose an interpretive phenomenological approach to explore the nature, meaning and value of university–industry partnering in attracting and retaining the best student talent from around the world.

Vignette 3 Starting a new chapter

2019 ◽  
pp. 71-72
Author(s):  
Mr C.T. Morgans
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Higher Learning ◽  
Education Department ◽  
The World ◽  
To Come

I am 71 years of age and I was convicted in 2009. I find very little for me in the day-to-day life of an inmate but I have always had an interest in the world about me and I discovered the OU prospectus in the library. It seemed to be a Godsend, both a means of keeping busy and as a way of gaining some sort of higher education that I missed out on before. The process of enrolling was somewhat fraught in that the education department of the prison I was in had personnel that had no interest in higher learning. The whole remit was to cater for people to come up to 11+ standards, not that they had any interest in helping those who could not read at all....

scholarly journals Creativity in the EFL Classroom: Exploring Teachers’ Knowledge and Perceptions

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arab World English Journal ◽  
NEDJAH Hana ◽  
HAMADA Hacène
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Creative Thinking ◽  
English Department ◽  
Education Systems ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Higher Education Systems ◽  
Efl Teachers ◽  
The World ◽  
Uncertain Knowledge

As a response to the new requirements and needs of this fast-changing information era, higher education systems all over the world are focusing on developing learners’ higher mental competences including creative thinking. The current study aims at exploring teachers’ knowledge about the general concepts of creative thinking and its related skills. Moreover, the study attempts to investigate teachers’ perceptions about creativity and its incorporation in the English foreign language (EFL) Classroom. To examine these issues, a questionnaire was administered to twenty-seven EFL teachers from the English department of Badji Mokhtar university, Algeria. The Findings reveal that although teachers hold positive perceptions about promoting creative thinking in the EFL classroom, they generally consider creativity as a quite confusing concept and have uncertain knowledge about its characteristics

Understanding Culture and its Implications for E-Learning

2014 ◽  
pp. 133-149
Author(s):  
Enric Serradell-López ◽  
Cristina Casado-Lumbreras ◽  
David Castillo-Merino
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Geographic Location ◽  
Cultural Dimensions ◽  
Global Environment ◽  
Cultural Elements ◽  
Global Context ◽  
Cultural Aspects ◽  
The World ◽  
E Learning ◽  
The University

Universities around the world are facing the task of adapting to a changing environment. In a contemporary global context, universities must respond to new educational needs, leading to a global process of enhancing lifelong learning. In addition, they must add new demands not only by students but also from other stakeholders who see the university as a core institution of training for adults. In the highly competitive and global environment of universities, traditional elements such as geographic location are less important in favour of other more intangible factors, such as the image of universities, prestige, and ability of adaptation to the training needs of people. Moreover, the phenomenon of e-learning leads to an increase in the competition between universities, where previous intangibles are increasingly important, as well as those that emphasize cultural aspects. This chapter presents how cultural dimensions are related to higher education, particularly from the work of Hofstede and the Globe project, as well as some cultural elements to consider in virtual environments.

Understanding Culture and its Implications for E-Learning

2013 ◽  
pp. 144-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enric Serradell-López ◽  
Cristina Casado-Lumbreras ◽  
David Castillo-Merino
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Geographic Location ◽  
Cultural Dimensions ◽  
Global Environment ◽  
Cultural Elements ◽  
Global Context ◽  
Cultural Aspects ◽  
The World ◽  
E Learning ◽  
The University

Universities around the world are facing the task of adapting to a changing environment. In a contemporary global context, universities must respond to new educational needs, leading to a global process of enhancing lifelong learning. In addition, they must add new demands not only by students but also from other stakeholders who see the university as a core institution of training for adults. In the highly competitive and global environment of universities, traditional elements such as geographic location are less important in favour of other more intangible factors, such as the image of universities, prestige, and ability of adaptation to the training needs of people. Moreover, the phenomenon of e-learning leads to an increase in the competition between universities, where previous intangibles are increasingly important, as well as those that emphasize cultural aspects. This chapter presents how cultural dimensions are related to higher education, particularly from the work of Hofstede and The Globe project, as well as some cultural elements to consider in virtual environments.

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