The College Fix

Writing for Forbes, higher education pundit and scholar George Leef tells the tale of the University of Minnesota Rochester in the article “Small, New University Does Something Radical – Only Hires Professors Who Want To Teach And Only Admits Students Who Want To Learn.”

It actually gave us a glimmer of hope here at The Fix regarding the state of higher education – what a refreshing change of pace.

But just because much of our higher education system is now a poor value for students who really want to study, we shouldn’t think that worthwhile schools have disappeared. In fact, just a few years ago, a new, very small university was created — the University of Minnesota Rochester (UMR) – that does just what a college is supposed to do.

While online education is getting most of the attention these days when the subject of change in higher education comes up, UMR shows that the old-fashioned professor-facing-students-in-a-classroom model can be reworked so that it gives serious students a true education at reasonable cost.

First, a short history of UMR. Rochester, Minnesota is best known as the home of the famed Mayo Clinic. IBM also has a large presence in the city. …

(Chancellor Stephen) Lehmkuhle decided that UMR should focus on just one thing, namely training people for careers in medicine and related fields, a perfect fit for the Mayo Clinic’s headquarters. UMR only offers a B.S. in Health Sciences. The curriculum includes a liberal arts component in the first two years, alongside rigorous grounding in the STEM disciplines. In their last two years, students are immersed in studies that prepare them for their careers, including a capstone senior project.

One of the unique features of UMR is the absence of academic departments. Colleges and universities are almost always an assemblage of numerous departments, each requiring considerable overhead expenses, and often squabbling among themselves for money and prestige. Lehmkuhle saw that UMR could not afford that, so the faculty is all one team rather than a group of jealous departments.

Another remarkable feature of UMR is its approach to tenure….

UMR’s approach to tenure is altogether different (than most universities). …. Candidates for tenure (at UMR) must first of all demonstrate excellence in teaching. To show that, professors can present an array of evidence including their efforts at developing community-based learning activities for students, how they have interacted with student projects, course evaluations and letters from students, and their advising, mentoring and supervising of capstone experiences. (Professors usually teach 12 hours, and are also expected to devote around 20 hours per week to student contact.)

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IMAGE: SLU Madrid Campus/Flickr

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