Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Abbreviations xi
1 Introduction: Start-Up U 1
Your Guides to the Future of the University 5
Thorny Questions 8
A Pluralist View of Impact 10
Who This Book Is for and How It Unfolds 12
2 The Liberal Arts Go Global 16
Waves of Change 19
The Liberal Arts Go Global 22
Innovation and Tradition 26
3 The World's Honors College: NYU Abu Dhabi 30
A Provost without a University 32
Creating the World's Honors College 35
Abu Dhabi as the Middle East Ideas Capital 37
Building the Faculty and Curriculum 41
Controversies on the Home Front and Academic Freedom 42
Evolution and Revision 45
Entering Young Adulthood 49
4 In Asia for the World: Yale-NUS College 53
Singapore as an Education Hub 54
Yale Appoints a Dean 55
Global Ambitions for NUS and Yale 57
Controversies in New Haven 61
The First Yale-NUS President 64
Building a Common Curriculum for the World 66
The Approach to Steady State 70
The Fate and Impact of Yale-NUS 73
5 A Culture of Continuous Innovation: Olin College of Engineering 76
Creating the Ideal University 78
The Partner Year 80
The Emergence of Olin College Culture 83
Olin's Second President 87
Expanding Creativity and Diversity at Olin 89
Libera Arts and Interdisciplinary Engineering 90
Preserving Innovation after the Start-Up 92
6 The Intangibles of Excellence: Fulbright University Vietnam 96
The Intangibles of Excellence 98
Controversy and Control 101
"It Felt like a Tech Launch" 102
Codesign Year 105
Teaching the American War in Ho Chi Minh City 107
From Blank Slate to First Draft 109
The Meaning of Innovation 111
Impact and Trajectory 114
7 Archimedes's Lever: Ashoka University 118
Overcoming the Colonial Legacy 119
Creating the Rhodes Scholarship of India 121
Built by the Elite, for the Elite? 123
The Kama Sutra and the Mahabharata 126
From Consumer to Producer 130
Between Academic and Entrepreneurial Cultures 132
Academic Autonomy and Institution Building 134
Archimedes's Lever 137
8 Building an African Renaissance: Ashesi University 141
The Return to Africa 142
The Business Plan for the New University 144
Building Social Capital for Ashesi 146
Finding the Market for Liberal Arts in Africa 148
Launching Ashesi's Campus and Curriculum 151
Training Ethical Entrepreneurial Leaders for Africa 154
The Ashesi University Culture 157
The Future of Africa and Ashesi University 159
9 A Global Solution, African Born: African Leadership University 162
From Academy to University 164
Turning a University on Its Head 167
Making It Safe to Innovate 172
Discontent and the Emergence of the African Leadership Experience 175
Excellence at Scale-ALU 2.0 and The Room 177
Audacity and Risk-Taking 180
10 Critical Wisdom for the Sake of the World: Minerva University 183
Brand and Specs 184
Financing and Accreditation 186
Critical Wisdom and Curricular Structure 189
Building a Fully Active Pedagogy 192
Cities and Students 196
Faculty Culture 201
Sustaining the Vision 204
11 Essential Categories for Success in a Start-Up University 208
Generating Prestige 209
Creating a Sustainable Business Model 213
Build and Launch 217
Recruiting the Faculty 222
Curriculum and Accreditation 226
Campus and Virtual Environment 234
12 Shared Governance and Global Aspirations 241
Shared Governance in a Start-Up World 242
Managing Conflict and Navigating Ambiguity 248
Rooting Global Aspirations in the Local Context 253
Rediscovered Heritages and Global Residents 260
Evolutionary Phases and Underlying Assumptions 263
13 Conclusion: Lessons Learned and Parting Thoughts 265
Adaptation and Succession 268
Cultivating Flexibility 270
Balancing Centrifugal and Centripetal Forces 273
Parting Thoughts 275
Notes 287
Bibliography 301
Index 323