Institutional Transplantation in Education
- Cultural Transfusion to a New Institution
Vivek Sakhrani (presenting author)
Aikaterini Bagiati
Sanjay Sarma
Richard de Neufville
Special thanks to Dara Fisher, Stella Kournelaki
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
& MIT-SUTD Collaboration
WEEF 2012 Forum
October 15 - 18, 2012
Buenos Aires
Singapore University of Technology & Design
(SUTD)
• New, engineeringoriented university in
Singapore
• Inaugural cohort of 320
students
– First classes on May 7,
2012
• Largest & most holistic
transplantation venture of
MIT to date
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Singapore University of Technology & Design
(SUTD)
SUTD envisions:
• The best regional university for
design and engineering education
in South East Asia
• A culture of independence,
bottoms-up innovation and and
multi-disciplinary collaboration
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MIT – SUTD Collaboration
Collaborative
Curriculum Development
Immersive
New Faculty Development
Students’ Culture Formation
Critical Building-Blocks / Pathways
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“Institutional Transplantation” in
Education
• Definition:
“a process in which a host environment borrows an institution from
another environment (the model) for the purposes of enhancing or
improving the host environment.”
• Comparative Education (Phillips et al., 2009)
• Inherent Assumptions:
–Successful model in donor environment
–Selective grafting or replication is possible
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“Institutional Transplantation” in
Education
An early warning (Sadler, 1900)
“…we cannot wander at pleasure among the
educational systems of the world…and pick off a
flower from one bush and some leaves from
another…”
Holistic educational transfer requires multiple pathways
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Issue:
Re-engineering Engineering
Education
• Vision of the Engineer of 2020 – and beyond
(NRC, 2004 ; NAE, 2005)
– Today’s engineering students, tomorrow’s leaders
• A global issue, central to the technological,
economic and labor competitiveness of many
nations
Engineer of the future must be produced by
educational institutions of the future
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International Collaborations
• The comparative advantage argument
– Expertise, resource/environmental endowment, niche
markets
High
Degree of
Intellectual
Collaboration
Joint degree
programs
Establishing new
universities
collaboratively
Study abroad
International Campus
Low
Low
High
Degree of Structural Similarity
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A Self-Preservation Strategy for MIT
• Retain Global Relevance
– World’s most challenging and compelling problems are not
nationally or geographically specific
• “Mens et Manus” = Mind & Hand
– Balancing academic and practical impact for global effectiveness
• Resources
– Diversifying channels to support research and educational
innovation
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MIT – SUTD Collaboration
Collaborative
Curriculum Development
Immersive
New Faculty Development
Students’ Culture Formation
Critical Building-Blocks / Pathways
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Collaborative Curriculum Development
Initial course development at MIT, taught at SUTD
•
•
•
•
Courses: project-based active learning
Structure: common first year “freshmore”
Dual masters and dual post-docs
Co-curricular emphasis
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MIT-SUTD Faculty Development
Program
Goal: nurture the formation of a collective self-identity
• Bi-weekly Seminars:
• Structure:
–
–
–
–
Year-long
Small cohorts (6 to 8 professors)
One semester overlap
70 professors over next 5 – 7
years
– Intentionally designed activities
and programs delivered in biweekly seminars
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– Orientation
– Self-organized teams &
exercises
– Pedagogy
– Hands-on exercises
– Academic Life…at MIT
and beyond
– Reflection and
Evaluation
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Students’ Culture Formation
• Best communicated within
student body
• Interaction with older
student cohorts
• Recruit MIT students as
“surrogate upperclassmen”
• MISTI-Singapore
Leadership Initiative
• Student governance
Hacks.mit.edu
emerging
“Bicilivadora”
– 25+ student organizations
Lima, Peru
MIT D-Lab
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Lessons so far…
ClassesCollaborative
have begun… but
CurriculumisDevelopment
curriculum
very much a
work in progress
Immersive
‘Writing
is hard
Newletters
Facultyhome…’
Development
AttritionCulture
from leadership
Students’
Formation
program
We need toStaff
evaluate
and maintain ‘persistence’
and administrators
?
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References
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Bagiati, A., Sakhrani, V., Sarma, S., De Neufville, R. Approaching Institutional Transplantation
through Faculty Development. To appear in the 2012 SEFI Conference Proceedings, September
2012, Thessaloniki, Greece.
Beech, J., Cowen, R., & Kazamias, A. M. Who is Strolling Through the Global Garden?
International Agencies and Educational Transfer International Handbook of Comparative
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Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., Cocking, R. R., National Academy of Sciences - National Research
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