Abstract:

Innovation is a foundation for development and growth. Though many try (Forbes, Bloomberg), innovation is not easy to measure. There are even attempts to come up with the Global Innovation Index. Innovation used to be a term applicable in most cases to businesses and startups. However, more and more often we started applying this word to describe educational organizations and universities. But are all innovative universities alike? What do they offer and do to earn this characteristic? In spring 2015, U.S. News for the first time in its more than 30 year old history of ranking universities, asked administrators of best colleges about innovative improvements in their curriculum, faculty, students, campus life, technology or facilities. Though the methodology is relatively new and might require refining over time, it is still interesting to see which US national universities entered this category and why.

Reuters employed a different methodology with 10 matrices, mainly research and commercialization based, to identify their list of 100 most innovative world universities, half of which happened to be from US. The Times Higher Education used four indices to rank universities based on their engagement their business and industry. In my paper, I will review and analyze different methodologies applicable to higher education, identify traits of innovative universities, and provide examples of their innovative approaches in curriculum design, faculty activities, student engagement, organization of campus life, technology, facilities, research, commercialization, facilities for learning, teaching, and research. Though there cannot be recipes or one-size-fit-all recommendations, we can determine what universities can focus on to become more innovative.

Keywords:

innovation, higher education, university, ranking.