Institution Information
- Minerva Schools at KGI
- Higher Education
- Based in San Francisco, but students spend time in six cities across the world.
- Edge blog from previous visit here.
Practices Identified
- Broad and engaging curriculum where all students share the same foundation year of skills and concepts.
- Online teaching through a high quality interactive platform that promotes active engagement.
- A global rotation of experiences on the ground in different cities around the world.
Practice Description
Minerva was started in 2012 as a brand new Higher Education institution. It is based in San Francisco but draws students from all over the world.
Minerva teaches a broad liberal arts curriculum and students work towards a four-year undergraduate degree. The first year is the same for all students, giving them a strong grounding in the foundational concepts and cross-cutting skills they will need in any discipline.
There are no lectures at Minerva – students are taught in seminar groups with a maximum size of 20. They use a ‘radically flipped classroom’ model where students complete reading and work before class ready to engage in active discussion and debate. All seminars take place through a uniquely designed interactive online platform which embeds tools to make sessions as interactive as possible, with students engaging in debates, discussions, intellectual relays and quizzes to name but a few approaches.
Although teaching is online, students live together and go on a ‘global rotation’ spending time in cities across the world including Hyderabad, Seoul, London and Berlin. While in these cities they have structured and unstructured opportunities to get to know the location and work with local organisations on interactive projects that help to bring their learning to life.