Dive Brief:
- Fortune Magazine is working with the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina to create a new executive education program utilizing the strong business contacts the magazine can offer in order to create an affordable degree for fledging executives, Poynter reports.
- The new program is created in contrast to expensive Ivy League educations, with individual courses ranging from $950 to $3,500. Cheddar, a financial streaming network, announced a similar virtual program last week in a partnership with Strayer University.
- Students will be taking classes with university faculty, while also getting an opportunity to meet successful CEOs, which is often one of the perks of pursuing executive education. The creators of Fortune’s program say this will avoid the restrictive price tag of the Ivy League programs.
Dive Insight:
If potential applicants are drawn to executive education courses because of the potential opportunity to meet with successful executives, this program could serve as a model for other collaborations in higher education in various disciplines. In the course of college, there are often interactions with individuals in the professional realms the students hope to enter, but it is not always central to the curriculum itself. The number of short, vocational credentials issued doubled between 2000 and 2012, indicating a potent interest in direct interactions with industry professionals. This could be expanded into more structured, foundational partnerships between industries and educational institutions.
There is also a burgeoning trend of “enabler” businesses which “augment, enable, and evolve the provision of higher education in the 21st century.” Colleges and universities must approach industry professionals in this way, seeing businesses as enablers to the college experience. They can be involved in courses in a way that adds to the class, rather than replacing it. And the students would benefit from the consistent presence of those with their hands deep into the industries that fascinate those students.