When Christine Ortiz imagines her ideal university she sees “no lectures, no classrooms, no majors, no departments”. Students will work on tough practical problems in huge open spaces. If they need to swot up, they will consult the internet, not a lecturer. Her vision is far removed from the traditional model of higher education. But it will soon become a reality. In July, after six years as dean of graduate education at MIT, this materials scientist will leave to found a new university set to open in the next five years.
It will exemplify a trend that is reshaping how some students learn. Geoff Mulgan of Nesta, a British think-tank, calls it the “rise of the challenge-driven university”. In the past 15 years dozens such institutions have been set up, from Chile to China. Many more are planned. Though they differ in scope, they share an approach. They reject the usual ways of getting young adults to learn: lectures, textbooks, slogs in the library, exams — and professors. Instead, students work in teams on projects, trying to solve problems without clear answers. Companies often sponsor the projects and provide instructors. Courses combine the arts, humanities and sciences. (The slogan of Zeppelin University, founded in 2003 in Germany, reads: “The problems within our society are ill-disciplined, and so are we!”)
There have been earlier attempts to disrupt higher education. Experimental College, in Wisconsin, attracted hundreds of free-spirited students when it was founded in 1927 without schedules or mandatory classes. The Experimental University, in Paris, was established by frustrated intellectuals after the protests of 1968. Both closed soon after.
Worry about the state of young minds is behind the latest initiatives. Champions of “deeper learning”, an increasingly popular idea in American education, argue that today’s teaching methods stifle understanding. Tony Wagner, the author of Creating Innovators, says that schools and universities are failing to spark young people’s curiosity. He points to research by Richard Arum of New York University and Josipa Roksa of the University of Virginia, who estimated in 2011 that despite four years of study 36 percent of newly minted American graduates failed to improve their scores on the Collegiate Learning Assessment, a test of critical thinking. Advocates of the new model also often cite the studies of Kyung Hee Kim of the College of William and Mary, which suggest that American scores on a standardised test of creativity have fallen since 1990, even as average IQ scores have risen.
All this is frustrating employers. About half the companies surveyed in 2015 by the Confederation of British Industry, a lobby group, said graduates are unprepared for business jobs. A report last year by the Association of American Colleges & Universities concluded that students lack applied knowledge, critical thinking and communication skills.
The new approach is only one part of broader changes in higher education. But too often, governments get in the way of fresh thinking. Though most Chinese universities offer courses on how to innovate or become an entrepreneur, the education ministry seems lukewarm. The South University of Science and Technology in China opened in 2011 pledging to award its own degrees (rather than being accredited by the ministry) and to admit students who had not sat the gaokao, the national college entrance exam. But last year it was forced to abandon both pledges.