Bob Kerrey
TOPIC-
THE MINERVA PROJECT Building the University of the Future An Ivy League education without the crushing debt – this is what The Minerva Project, billed as” “first elite American university to be launched in a century,” hopes to provide. While the demand for degrees from prestigious universities continues to be high, these institutions are not expanding at a great enough rate to keep up and this new school offers a solution. Former Nebraska Senator Bob Kerrey (who serves on the Minerva Project Advisory Board), calls it “the single most important innovation in higher education in my lifetime.” A recent piece in Time magazine explains, that Minerva is a “first-of-its-kind hybrid of old and new in which there is no campus and students take all of their classes online, but live together in traditional dorms.” Students will also rotate through various countries during their tenure and as Minerva Founder, Chairman and CEO Ben Nelson elaborates, he wants its graduates to become cosmopolitan citizens of the world. Minerva will help professors tailor materials to each student and Nelson believes it’s even better than a conventional education. With another announcement of the “Minerva Prize” (modeled after the Nobel Prize selection process), Minerva hopes to continue to bolster its profile and attract top talent to become the elite university of the future.
Bob Kerrey is the Executive Chairman of the Minerva Institute for Research and Scholarship and serves on the Minerva Project Advisory Board. As of January 1, 2011, Bob completed his tenure as seventh President of The New School, a university founded on strong democratic ideals and daring educational practices – an environmentthat was well suited for his leadership. Prior to The New School, Bob represented Nebraska in the United States Senate. Prior to serving in the U.S. Senate, Bob served a single term as Nebraska’s Governor working to balance its budget, partner with the private sector to create jobs, improve the quality of Nebraska’s schools, college and university, and protect Nebraska’s fragile soil and water. Bob served three years in the United States Navy as a Navy SEAL and won the Medal of Honor. Prior to his naval service, Bob graduated from University of Nebraska in 1966.
Date Recorded: 10292013
Podcast of the interview Download: