MIT Dean To Create Non-Profit University With No Majors, Classrooms

February 4, 2016

A dean from the renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is setting out to create an unorthodox university with no majors, lectures or classrooms.

Professor Christine Ortiz, MIT’s dean for graduate education, recently announced her plan to leave her position in order to make her vision a reality. Ortiz explained in MIT’s The Tech:

“I’m looking at a new model, where the whole sort of vocabulary is different. I don’t see it having any face to face, on-the-ground lectures, actually.”

Ortiz’s approach is focused on “project-based learning” that involves students working together on various challenges for an extended period of time. The university, which has not been named, will still have a physical infrastructure. However, the sort of learning will blend the distinctive lines between an undergraduate and graduate education.

The radical new institution is one of several initiatives to change the approach on the U.S. education model that has been mainly focused on earning perfect grades and building a list of extracurricular activities.

Ortiz hopes to base the non-profit university in Massachusetts and is taking a year’s leave at the end of the current academic year to recruit a team of people for the project.

h/t: Quartz

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