Dive Brief:
- MIT professor and dean for graduate education Christine Ortiz will begin a one-year leave at the end of this academic year, and she plans to use that time to found a new nonprofit research university with an entirely new model.
- The Tech reports that Ortiz has put project-based learning at the center of the new institution, where lectures will not exist and the traditional degree system will go out the window.
- Ortiz plans to give students latitude in their goals for their own educations, letting them decide the length of time necessary to complete projects that meet their learning expectations before they leave the yet-to-be-named institution she hopes to open in Massachusetts.
Dive Insight:
The U.S. Department of Education and many in Congress are looking for innovative new models for higher education that do away with the traditional reliance on seat time. Historically, students have progressed through their education based on the amount of time they spent in school. Competency-based programs, which hundreds of colleges now have or are developing, place mastery at the center of the timeline, allowing students to progress as quickly or as slowly as they need to.
While regulators have been hot and cold with this approach so far, many expect it to be a key strategy to make education more flexible and affordable with the growing ranks of nontraditional students in higher ed. Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act very likely could codify new paths to federal financial aid for innovative models.