Crowdfunding Higher Education
Posted: January 28, 2014 Filed under: General, Innovation 1 Comment
Dr. Leslie Jensen-Inman and Jared Spool, of the Unicorn Institute, have started a Kickstarter campaign to help fund their startup User Experience Design School, Center Centre. The campaign surpassed its initial target within a few hours and within several days it has raised more than $65,000 from more than 650 backers.
Seeking donations to support programs is nothing new to higher education institutions. However in this case, the school is foregoing traditional fundraising pathways, using instead technology supported social networks and crowdfunding tools to mobilize support for the program.
Ryan Torma
Designing Higher Ed 
Impressive… I wonder what’s in it for the backers. Kickstarter relies on incentives to keep people donating, so I wonder what the incentive is in this case…
…and I really wonder if this model is applicable to funding, say, liberal arts or writing programs, or if this works more with skill-based study like design…
…the project based approach certainly can produce results, but that doesn’t mean they get an education. We’re finding that out with the growing criticism of for-profit education and what they can and can’t provide… what’s keeping this Unicorn Institute from just being another for-profit endeavor?…
…just some wondering…