There is competition from new online schools with substantially lower overhead costs than campus-bound institutions, and lower price tags. Established universities need to adapt, as a raft of books during the last two years has pointed out.
What makes “The Innovative University,’’ out in hardback last week, stand out is its application of Christensen’s singular business principles (briefly, eliminate the inessential and embrace new technology) to “rethink the entire traditional higher-education model.’’
Some of the ideas Christensen supports are so dramatic that Jeffrey Selingo, editor of The Chronicle of Higher Education, recently wrote that administrators might consider them “toxic.’’
Christensen spares no one, not even Harvard.
Even though he devotes 124 pages of the book to commending Harvard - the section is called “The Great American University’’ - he sees room for improvement on his home turf.
“The quality of teaching is really very marginal in large portions of the university,’’ he said, echoing a common criticism of research universities. “If you take classes online, you can have the best teachers in America.’’
Harvard offers some courses online, including more than 150 from its continuing-education program. It has also made improving teaching a priority in recent years; last winter, it hosted a series of seminars on the topic, led by the dean of arts and sciences. Those lectures, too, are available online.
But Christensen sees promise in more radical models.
He touts Western Governors University - “pioneering,’’ “path-breaking,’’ open to many at a low tuition of $5,780 - for its choice of majors. Not that there’s much choice: The school offers four.
According to Western Governors’ website, there are no full-time instructors. There is no curriculum, no grades, no campus. Western Governors’ website is, in fact, the university: It’s an entirely online school.
