Could the next elite university be online and venture-backed? — from AllThingsD.com by Liz Gannes
Excerpt:
The Minerva Project says it’s planning to launch the first elite American university in a century. Sounds wacky, right?
But the project is starting to gather some heavyweight support: Former Harvard President and U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Larry Summers will chair its advisory board, and Benchmark Capital has committed $25 million, the VC firm’s largest seed investment ever.
Elite higher education is a stagnant market, argues Minerva CEO Ben Nelson. Far more people are qualified to get into top colleges than are admitted. Meanwhile, college education is too expensive and good teaching is undervalued. How can you address all that? By going online.
Also see:
Also see:
- With $25M from Benchmark and Larry Summers advising, can Minerva build an online Ivy? — from techcrunch.com by Rip Empson