ETH Global Lecture Series: The Future of Higher Education

The Future of Higher Education

externe SeiteBen Nelsoncall_made
Founder, Chairman and CEO
externe SeiteMinervacall_made

Free public lecture

externe SeiteRegistrationcall_made

Friday, 1 March 2019
ETH Zurich, Main Building, Lecture Hall HG E 7
15.30 - 16.15
Doors open at 15.15

Higher education is too expensive, ineffective, and impractical for many of the world’s students. But how would you reinvent it for the twenty-first century—how would you build it from the ground up? Minerva has worked from first principles to reinvent university education and create a new kind of university program. From a curriculum focused on “practical knowledge” (knowledge students can use to adapt to a changing world); pedagogy based on scientific research on learning; and a technology platform to deliver small seminars in real time, Minerva has created a new, comprehensive educational system driving forward a bold vision of a new and improved higher education. Join Ben Nelson as he explains that vision and how it is being realized.

Ben Nelson is Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Minerva, and a visionary with a passion to reinvent higher education. Prior to Minerva, Nelson spent more than 10 years at Snapfish, where he helped build the company from startup to the world’s largest personal publishing service.

Prior to joining Snapfish, Nelson was President and CEO of Community Ventures, a network of locally branded portals for American communities.

Nelson’s passion for reforming undergraduate education was first sparked at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, where he received a B.S. in Economics. After creating a blueprint for curricular reform in his first year of school, Nelson went on to become the chair of the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education (SCUE), a pedagogical think tank that is the oldest and only non-elected student government body at the University of Pennsylvania.