Online education projects are pushing hard for funding, but few have rivaled the Minerva Project, which raised $25 million in seed money last year.
The project has laid the foundation for an online education institute, a nonprofit branch of the daring for-profit project.
Minerva has always been for-profit at its heart, which is one reason it managed to raise such high levels of funding from Benchmark Capital. But now that the organization is unveiling more of its education plans, a strong nonprofit presence has reared its head. While classes will still be taught on a for-profit basis, a separate division called the Institute for Research and Scholarship will be strictly not-for-profit.
Headed by former U.S. Senator and Nebraskan Gov. Bob Kerrey, the institute will attempt to reinvent the college process, not only through e-learning but also through innovative fiscal policies.
“The Minerva Institute for Research and Scholarship will play an important role in attracting and directing financial support towards cutting-edge faculty research and academic programs for the world’s most brilliant students, which will positively shape our collective future. We are excited to have Bob Kerrey join us in a more formal capacity to lead this critical effort,” reported Ben Nelson, CEO of the Project, in the Institute Press Release.
The announcement does not affect the central values of the education center. Quality remains a core competency, and the school intends to select not only Ivy League professors but also students of only the highest caliber for its rosters. The institute functions as a way to fuel these lofty goals without getting students tied down in debt problems. Instead of relying on federal government aid, the institute will attempt to offer value for money and earn private support from willing donors.
Combined with the cost-cutting effects of e-learning technology, the Minerva Institute hopes to raise enough funding to make the venture profitable while still breaking the trend of soaring higher education costs. In the perfect world the Project dreams of, all of the most qualified undergraduate students from across the world will be able to afford entry, based only on “the most rigorous intellectual standards.”
Current plans have the school opening officially in 2015. This gives the project plenty of time to raise more capital and further define how its for-profit/nonprofit hybrid mix will function.
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