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Category: Institutions

Risks (Operational)

Ok, so we’ve been through all the prestige/reputational risk stuff (here and here), and tomorrow we will deal with financial risk.  But today, there’s the issue of straight-up operational risk: that is, the possibility that an institution (or part thereof) might not be able to open tomorrow. The obvious risks here relate to disaster planning: fire, earthquakes, environmental protection, etc.  This is the stuff the insurance companies really care about and with justification: these can really affect property values.  But with modern construction

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April 18, 2018 2 Comments

Risk (Reputation and Relationships)

When institutions talk about risk management, they primarily mean two things: operational risks (i.e. things which might prevent the institution from going about its usual business, which we’ll deal with tomorrow), and reputational risks.  This latter is not generally seen as relating to the actual quality of teaching and research (that has more to do with prestige, which we dealt with yesterday); rather, it has to do with “issues management” or worse, “crisis management”.  Risks to prestige are slow moving; risks

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April 17, 2018 4 Comments

Risk (Prestige)

For the next few days I want to take everyone through universities the way a Board of Governors sees them – or at least, the way a good governing Board should see them (some but not all of it applies to colleges as well; I’ll try to highlight both where possible), and that is through the lens of risk. It is the role of the Board of Governors (again, good ones) to ask the question, over and over, “what could go

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April 16, 2018 5 Comments

Designing a University from Scratch (III)

If you’re just joining us, on Wednesday I briefly reviewed some of the key aspects of the Minerva model as detailed in the book yesterday’s entry, as detailed in the book Building the Intentional University: Minerva and the Future of Higher Education.  Then yesterday, I examined what lessons the Minerva had for the rest of academia in terms of building curricula.  Today I want to turn to pedagogy and assessment. Assessment, in particular, is ripe for a deep re-think and overhaul. On the face of

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April 6, 2018 No Comments

Designing a University from Scratch (II)

Following on from yesterday’s discussion of the Minerva model (you might want to refresh your memory by re-reading yesterday’s entry, as detailed in the book Building the Intentional University: Minerva and the Future of Higher Education, I wanted to get into a bit more detail about whether the Minerva curriculum is a foretaste of things to come, a weird one-off, or an evolutionary dead-end. Short answer: I certainly hope Minerva represents a new trend in curricula, but I see one big

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April 5, 2018 No Comments

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One Thought to Start Your Day is our founder and CEO Alex Usher’s popular daily blog, brimming with up-to-the-minute insights and informed opinions on today’s higher education industry.

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