The Innovative University

The language of crisis is nothing new in higher education-for years critics have raised

alarms about rising tuition, compromised access, out of control costs, and a host of other

issues. Yet, though those issues are still part of the current crisis, it is not the same as

past ones. For the first time, disruptive technologies are at work in higher education. For

most of their histories, traditional universities and colleges have had no serious competition

except from institutions with similar operating models. Now, though, there are disruptive

competitors offering online degrees. Many of these institutions operate as for-profit entities,

emphasizing marketable degrees for working adults. Traditional colleges and universities

have valuable qualities and capacities that can offset those disruptors' advantages-but

not for everyone who aspires to higher education, and not without real innovation. How can

institutions of higher education think constructively and creatively about their response to

impending disruption?

Written by Clayton Christensen, the father of the theory of disruptive innovation, and his

colleague,

Henry J. Eyring, The Innovative University offers a nuanced and hopeful analysis of

the traditional university and its DNA. It explores how and why universities must change to

ensure future success.

Throughout the book Christensen and Eyring show what it takes to apply Christensen's

acclaimed model of disruptive innovation to a higher education environment. Through a

penetrating examination of the histories and current transformations of two very different

universities-Harvard and BYU-Idaho-and using other illustrative examples of innovation

in higher education, The Innovative University explores how universities can find innovative,

less costly ways of performing their uniquely valuable functions and thereby save themselves

from decline. The book explores the strategic choices and alternative ways in which traditional

universities can change to ensure their ongoing economic vitality. To avoid the pitfalls

of disruption and turn the scenario into a positive and productive one, universities must

re-

engineer their institutional DNA from the inside out.

The Innovative University reveals how the traditional university survives by breaking with

tradition, but thrives by building upon what it's done best.

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