Richard C. Levin, Former President Yale University

In my research I am trying to account for the surge in interest in applied knowledge and know-how through the theory of disruptive learning. It intends to explain how students at a traditionally liberal arts college and university use the institution’s intellectual, physical and financial resources to facilitate their preparation as 21^st century knowledge workers, shifting from learning as a purely intellectual regime to learning as an applied regime.  The theory covers how traditional academic subjects are put together in a learning architecture that is more experiential-based than traditional classroom learning. It explains how students are gaining access to experiential learning in the context of how to create innovations and how to engage in entrepreneurial activities and how to create either profit or mission-driven entrepreneurial ventures. Disruptive learning offers a different package of attributes valued initially by early adopters who are thinking about preparing for the 21^st global workforce in fundamentally different ways than students who are contemplating the traditional career paths pursued by graduates of elite liberal arts colleges and universities.

While the reemergence of applied science, engineering and technology as a full-fledged school at Yale is an important phase in modernizing Yale as an elite research and teaching institution, an equally important phase relates to how students use university resources to prepare for the modern workforce.  There is demand among students throughout the university for applied learning, whether in engineering, cognitive science, and business, for example.  Yale students look at other universities, such as Stanford and MIT, to see what is going on and ask why Yale does not offer more courses or training in contemporary areas of interest such as design, innovation and entrepreneurship.  Historically there was a bias against practical things.  Today’s students are demanding instruction that goes beyond framing intellectual questions.  Through their demands they seem to be signaling that their preparation as 21st century knowledge workers is too important to be left solely in the hands of university administrators and faculty.

The back story to disruptive learning at Yale is former President Richard Levin’s vision to modernize Yale. “Yale is committed to remain on everyone’s short list of the best universities in the world,” said Richard Levin.^[1]  “In the 21^st century, you must excel in science and engineering to maintain that position.  Modern space for scientific research is crucial in attracting top professors and students.  We find ourselves in stiffer competition in the sciences than in other fields,” he further stated.  As an economist he had studied the beneficial effect of scientific research on national economies; therefore he had an appreciation for the need to reawaken science and engineering as a part of his vision of transforming Yale into a modern research university and repositioning the university in the new knowledge economy.  He rethought the Yale administration’s decision in the early 1990s to eliminate the engineering department.  In 1994, he reestablished the dean of engineering post.  In 2000, he committed Yale to invest more than $1 billion in facilities for science, medicine, and technology.  For engineering, the Daniel L. Malone Engineering Center was completed in 2005.  And in 2008 the Faculty of Engineering was recognized as the School of Engineering & Applied Sciences.  This decision was an acknowledgment that science and technology were reshaping the world.  The opening of the Center for Engineering, Innovation and Design in 2012 was in some respects emblematic of former President Levin’s tenure and his vision to modernize Yale.  I consider him the Father of Modern Yale based on his vision and accomplishments during his 20 year term as Yale’s president.

Will the theory of disruptive learning as developed during my research at Yale bring forward propositions and or implications for other college and university campuses?