July 20, 2017

Purdue NewU update: Mission of NewU, video content

Among the questions that have come in regarding NewU -- the acquisition of Kaplan University -- are those related to the purpose of the acquisition and how it addresses Purdue's mission. Below is a brief summary provided by Frank Dooley, senior vice provost for teaching and learning.

Purdue’s land-grant status stems from the Morrill Act of 1862. The purpose of the creation of land-grant colleges was to provide a practical education to a broad segment of the population (APLU, including the "sons of toil" who had not been seen as potential students to earlier universities). In part, creating a better educated populace reflected the need for more educated individuals as part of the Industrial Revolution. The original land-grant status has been expanded twice, in each case expanding access to higher education to additional segments of the population. First, in 1890, the historically black colleges were granted land-grant status. In 1994, land-grant status was extended to tribal colleges.

Some suggest the time is ripe for a further expansion of the land-grant mission to serve adult learners with some college credit but no college credential. Michael Crow, president of Arizona State University and author of "Designing the New American University," argues that more adults need to complete college to participate in an information age economy. The creation of national service universities, some predict, is the next evolutionary wave in higher education.

Thus, the purpose of the NewU acquisition is to expand educational opportunities to more students, especially those with limited access to college today. Purdue, as Indiana’s only land-grant university, takes very seriously its commitment to expanding access to higher education. This acquisition enables Purdue to serve a much broader, nontraditional population of adult learners who are balancing work and family responsibilities with their desire to further their education and acquire important skills for the workplace.

Serving this population requires a set of online program offerings and technical student support capabilities that the Purdue system currently does not have in place. Moreover, it requires pedagogies aimed at adult learners. Were Purdue to attempt to develop such capabilities on its own, it would take many years and significant financial investment, and there would be no guarantee of success.

Given the well-documented need for education beyond high school, the new university can contribute to Indiana’s goal of increasing higher education attainment to 60 percent of the state’s population. NewU will fill a niche in the Purdue system that is geared toward making education more broadly accessible, which will also have direct economic implications for the state of Indiana.

NewU expands Purdue’s land-grant mission to serve adult learners, using a proven infrastructure to offer online programs at scale. Kaplan University has been successful in educating higher-risk students (defined by the U.S. Department of Education as exhibiting several characteristics, including single parents working full time while attending school part time, being older with legal dependents other than a spouse) and has a strong assessment culture that measures learning outcomes through competency-based programs, critical-thinking assessments, alumni surveys and income growth measurements. KU, like Purdue, is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.

A video is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mtzd81FNrss in which a Kaplan University graduate talks about her work as director of a child advocacy center.

More on NewU is available at www.purduenewu.org.

Reminder: Questions have been compiled and are available online at www.purduenewu.org/faq.pdf


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