The New Ventures in Higher Education

Starting a university from scratch takes courage. Learn about the leaders across the globe who are doing it.

Noah Pickus at Duke in DC office
The New Global Universities summit was inspired by a book written by Noah Pickus and Bryan Penprase.

Twelve years ago, Noah Pickus, a Duke ethics professor, and physicist and astronomer Bryan Penprase found themselves discussing the state of higher education at a bar in Chicago. “Over hazy IPAs we discovered a mutual frustration with the ways in which colleges and universities imitate each other in a race for improved college rankings and prestige,” wrote the two in a recent issue of University World News.

They felt there was a need for innovative, high-quality educational ventures, with new types of curricula and teaching, across the globe. They weren’t all talk: Since that meeting, each helped launch new universities in Asia. Pickus, now associate provost at Duke, helped launch Duke Kunshan University (DKU) in China, where he is dean of academic strategy; Penprase, a founding faculty member of Yale-NUS College in Singapore, is vice president for sponsored research and external academic relations and professor of physics and astronomy at Soka University of America.

In their book “The New Global Universities: Reinventing Education in the 21st Century” (Princeton University Press), published in December 2023, the two built on their experiences  to chronicle the efforts of like-minded leaders in the development and launching of eight innovative colleges and universities in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and North America.

Innovations in Teaching


Bryan Penprase says many of the innovations at new global universities offer new types of curricula and teaching in undergraduate education that can be replicated elsewhere: Here are examples:
 
--Yale-NUS College, which merges both natural and social sciences and Asian and Western philosophical and political ideas
--a four-year course at Ashesi University in Ghana designed for developing entrepreneurial and ethical leaders for Africa
--a Vietnam studies course at Fulbright University Vietnam that presents both American and Vietnamese views of the war

“We think that our colleagues in higher education will find value in the courage and intellectual chutzpah that it takes to start a new college or university from scratch,” Pickus said about the book to Princeton University Press.  They also wanted to share stories and lessons learned with other entrepreneurs who had similar goals to reinvent higher education.

Most recently, Pickus has taken the concept of the book a step further. For a day and a half in June at the Duke in D.C. office, Pickus hosted the “The New Global Universities Summit,” where 48 founders and current leaders of new universities around the globe could gather in one place to learn from their experiences. 

The summit marked the global launch of the Institute for Global Higher Education at DKU and was produced in collaboration with Learning Innovation and Lifetime Education (LILE) at Duke.

“It brought together innovators, leaders and change agents around education,” said summit participant Gilda Barabino, president of Olin College of Engineering, based in Needham, Mass..

Olin College, founded in 1997, aims to integrate engineering, humanities and entrepreneurship through design- and project-based learning.

Barabino added: “We were all driven by our purpose and mission to do things differently and create new ways of educating, thinking and doing. (The summit) was an exciting way to share.”

Yakut Gazi, vice provost and leader of LILE at Duke, noticed that at the summit there was an absence of conversation about technology, particularly A.I. “This might seem paradoxical,” said Gazi, “But the institutions at the event were primarily addressing issues central to traditional establishments, such as reevaluating mission statements, curriculum, faculty governance, brand impact, and the skills and knowledge required for the new century.”

Chief executive officer of African Leadership University Veda Sunassee, at the summit.
Chief executive officer of African Leadership University Veda Sunassee, at the summit.

An example of this can be seen in the new African Leadership University, which provides a mix of in-person, experiential and peer-based learning at a cost as low as $3,000 per year, aimed at a booming young population in Africa. 

Chief executive officer of African Leadership University Veda Sunassee said in an interview after the summit that new universities shouldn’t come at the expense of old universities, but that more distinct types of universities are needed to meet some of today’s challenges.

“In some parts of the world, (old universities) are just not enough,” Sunassee said, citing Africa as an example. There, only 9.2% of those eligible to be in higher learning currently are. “You need more universities in that context. There is room for innovation across the board.”

Sunassee added that disseminating knowledge does not require a ton of resources. “You don’t need a fancy building or a lecture theater that operates at 10 percent capacity,” he said. “Identify the critical pieces and suddenly you’re opening yourself to possibilities to bringing costs down.”

Sunassee called it a privilege to learn about other universities in the same movement. “We could see the common themes, be validated and offer advice to younger ones,” he said.

Left to right: Bryan Penprase, co-author of “The New Global Universities”; Gilda Barabino, president of Olin College of Engineering; and Mabel Miao, co-founder for the Center for Globalization and China

Left to right: Bryan Penprase, co-author of “The New Global Universities”; Gilda Barabino, president of Olin College of Engineering; and Mabel Miao, co-founder for the Center for Globalization and China

Duke Provost Alec D. Gallimore with Joanne Roberts, president of Yale-NUS College

Duke Provost Alec D. Gallimore with Joanne Roberts, president of Yale-NUS College

William Kirby, professor of China studies and faculty chair of Harvard Center Shanghai (opened in 2010), said that one of the constant themes that came up during discussion at the summit was that new universities are being founded for older universities’ lack of capacity to address 21st century concerns across the globe.

“There is a grain of truth to that,” said Kirby, who served as a senior adviser to Duke on the creation of DKU. “Everyone who works at a leading American university knows the limits of what we do.

“We won’t be number 1 if we don’t continue to try to reinvent ourselves and learn from others outside the United States,” he said.  “The summit was an opportunity to share views and perspectives from all over the world.”