In September 2014 , a group of about 28 educatee from 14 countries became the first category ever to attend the Minerva Schools at KGI , a new four - yr university try out with an entirely different approach to the traditional undergraduate experience . Lectures , entry - level classes and football game stadiums are out ; minor , interactive on-line seminars are in . Rather than train students for a peculiar field or specialty , the Minerva Schools ( Minerva , for short ) seek to sprain education on its head , trusting scholar to track down fact and general information on their own , and teaching them how to remember critically , make and communicate across every academic field of study .
Minerva got its showtime in 2011 as theMinerva Projectwhen CEO and founder Ben Nelson , a University of Pennsylvania graduate and the former CEO of Snapfish , decided to pursue his thought for a new university model . Nelson ’s goal was to do off with what he perceived as the failings and defect ofhigher educational activity , exchange impersonal old - school lecture with small , scholar - concenter seminar conducted over an interactive online platform [ sources : Minerva , Walker ] .
Minerva ’s backstory voice in many ways more similar to an cyberspace start - up than an institution of higher eruditeness . base in San Francisco , Minerva was launch with a $ 25 million seed investment from the same venture cap house that launchedeBayand Twitter , and it will control as a for - profit company [ origin : Kaminski ] . Nelson hopes to finally build a student body of between 7,000 and 10,000 , although it ’s unclear how before long that might hap [ root : Kaminski , Walker ] .
Minerva bills itself as " a reinvented university experience for the brightest , most motivated educatee in the world , " put up " an surpassing and accessible liberal art and sciences didactics . " The school is unapologetically selective . Nelson enjoin that the school will accept all students that run across its admission criteria , but in its first year , Minerva received 2,464 applications from around the world and extend offers to just 69 students , giving the new university around a 2.8 per centum acceptance rate ( Harvard ’s was 5.8 percentage in 2013 ) [ sources : Minerva , U.S. News & World Report ] .
So how precisely does the Minerva Project work , and what makes it dissimilar from traditional college or on-line point programs ? Read on to find out !
Student Life at Minerva
First , block the quintessential image of grassy quad , imposing brick buildings and ivy - covered walls . Minerva skips all the trappings of the traditional college experience , including sports team , fraternities , sororities , and even libraries , dining halls and student hub . Sticking to only the most basic amenities not only make unnecessary money , but also continue the focal point on the curriculum and make it well-to-do to localize up a Minerva localisation almost anywhere [ sources : Kaminski , Minerva , Wood ] .
With classes taking placeonline , you might gestate Minerva student to only attend schooling from wherever they live , anywhere in the world . But that is n’t the display case . Minerva may have abandon the traditional conception of a college campus , but Minerva students live on together in a shared residence Granville Stanley Hall and are encouraged to gather for social class excursions and field trip as well as social and ethnical activity available in the urban center . The school curriculum emphasise " global immersion , " with scholar spending their first year in San Francisco and then commute placement every semester to experience a grasp of cultures and terminology in dissimilar worldwide centers . The emplacement were not yet nail down as of October 2014 , but possibilities include Hong Kong , Buenos Aires , Berlin , London , Cape Town , Mumbai , New York and Sydney .
Unlike their student , Minerva professor may exist anywhere in the reality that has an Internet connection , a conclusion that Minerva says will aid to appeal and retain top module , as well as give up a single professor to teach course of study in multiple locations [ rootage : forest ] .
All classes are limited to 19 pupil plus one instructor . Unlike massive open on-line course ( MOOCs ) , in which students often look out recorded lectures , or asynchronous online courses , in which an instructor posts designation or enquiry for students to answer at a later time , Minerva ’s online classes take place in real time and are geared toward intensive give-and-take between teacher and students . The schooling ’s proprietary online platform – think of it as a sophisticated video confab – allows the instructor to communicate with the whole group at once , ruin students into small piece of work groups or see how single educatee are responding to the course fabric [ rootage : Minerva , woodwind ]
Atlantic cartridge author Graeme Wood was allow to test - drive a course teach by French physicist Eric Bonabeau who split the all - television class into groups to defend opposite propositions . " No one needed to shuffle seat ; Bonabeau just press a button , and the student in the other group fly from my screen , leaving my three fellow debaters and me to plan , using a shared bulletin board on which we could record our ideas , " spell Wood . He find the continuous involvement fascinating but " exhausting . "
Academics at Minerva
One of the most canonical requirements for any college – especially a selective school whose primary selling point is anIvy - conference - worthy curriculum – is accreditation . Colleges are accredited by independent regional review display panel , and as a fresh mental home , Minerva face a potentially long process , with no guarantee of approval at the end . To speed up the process , the Minerva Project partner with the Keck Graduate Institute ( KGI ) a modest but recognise college near Los Angeles , mold the Minerva Schools at KGI [ sources : Kaminski , Minerva , Wood ] .
Students at Minerva can expect to do a clean amount of work outside of class , and even before the semester starts . While the university does not use anyMOOC - stylelectures , students may be expect to review MOOC offerings from other institutions on their own , essentially completing the freshman - level coursework independently before working with classmates and professors on more innovative material [ generator : Wood ] .
The university emphasize large-minded arts and science , teaching critical thinking across all disciplines rather than sustain students narrow down in one narrow-minded field . At least initially , Minerva will offer just five John Major : arts and human race , societal sciences , computational sciences , natural sciences and business .
Minerva ’s inaugural students seem to be well mindful that they are take part in an educational experiment of sort . In a newspaper article , founding course member Kayla Human discover herself and her new classmates as " attached to Minerva ’s potential , but unsure of its realism … My enrolling at Minerva is my joining the movement for radical change in breeding . "
The Great Unknown
In every interview and pressure release , Ben Nelson and the representatives of the Minerva Institute and Minerva Academy emphasise that Minerva is an elite college , but in its first - ever semester ( Fall 2014 ) , Minerva ’s success , reputation and staying major power have not yet been tested .
While some critics have question the for - profits structure of the university , Nelson maintains that the school will be more affordable than most nonprofit universities . Unlike many for - lucre schools that rely on federal bookman aid for the volume of their revenue , Minerva rejects federal funding altogether . By bank on secret funding , Nelson estimates that he will pull through $ 1,000 per pupil in federal aid complaisance cost [ source : Wood ] . Minerva ’s tuition of $ 10,000 per year is far lower than any of the Ivy League college , even when estimated room and board costs of $ 18,000 per yr are added in .
For student who may have qualified forfederal scholar care , Minerva read it plan to offer internships , need - based scholarships and help with obtaining privateloans . And while it may be difficult for the school to return a profit through student tutorship alone , TheWall Street Journalreports that Minerva could finally sire revenue by offering conferences and executive education or licensing its content and proprietary seminar technology .
To be sure , the Minerva model wo n’t appeal to everyone . Nelson himself concedes that if you long to be a college jock , Minerva is not the situation for you [ source : Kaminski ] . Just as some scholarly person favour large party school and some look for modest , quiet liberal arts colleges , the Minerva glide path to instruction and scholarly person life is sure to appeal to some academically minded students . But whether Minerva will have the hooking to commit the good and brightest students from Ivy League introduction remains to be seen . Despite its stringent admission criteria and low sufferance rate , Minerva will probably need to graduate a class or two before it can be look at for inclusion in the U.S. News & World Report College Rankings .
For more about the Minerva Project and other nontraditional models of higher education , check out the imagination on the next pageboy .
Lots More Information
It will be interesting to see what the future holds for the Minerva Project and especially for Minerva students . Having taught online course of study several year ago for a unlike for - profit online university , and having experienced the Internet bubble ( and flop ! ) at a dot - com inauguration , I see a few things that make me interview the long - term feasibility of the Minerva Project , but I also think this speculation put in some new and dissimilar ideas that could facilitate to commute the fashion students and universities think about high education .
