Minerva University (formerly Minerva Schools at

Keck Graduate Institute Keck Graduate Institute (KGI) is a private graduate school in Claremont, California, United States. Founded by Henry Riggs and David Galas in 1997, it is the seventh and newest member of the Claremont Colleges. History Henry Riggs, then p ...

) is a

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...

residential A residential area is a land used in which houses, housing predominates, as opposed to industrial district, industrial and Commercial Area, commercial areas. Housing may vary significantly between, and through, residential areas. These include ...

university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

headquartered in

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. It was established in 2012 by Ben Nelson using $25million in venture funding from

Benchmark Capital Benchmark is a venture capital firm founded in 1995 by Bob Kagle, Bruce Dunlevie, Andy Rachleff, Kevin Harvey, and Val Vaden. The firm is known for its equal partnership structure and focus on early-stage investing, typically leading the firs ...

. All classes are conducted as seminars capped at 19 students. Students travel to and live together in residential housing in a new country each semester, starting their education in San Francisco, and then living in Seoul, Taipei, Hyderabad, Buenos Aires, Tokyo, Berlin, and then ending their program in San Francisco.

History

Minerva Project

In April 2012, Minerva Project received in venture funding from

to create the undergraduate program that would become the Minerva Schools at KGI.

Stephen Kosslyn Stephen M. Kosslyn (born 1948) is an American psychologist and neuroscientist. He is a former chair of the psychology department and dean of social sciences at Harvard University. Kosslyn is currently the president of Active Learning Sciences, I ...

joined Minerva in March 2013 to serve as Founding Dean. Before joining Minerva, Kosslyn served as Director of the

Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences The Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) is an interdisciplinary research institution at Stanford University designed to advance the frontiers of knowledge about human behavior and society, and contribute to the resoluti ...

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

and Dean of Social Sciences at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. Kosslyn was responsible for hiring the heads of the four colleges in the School of Arts & Science and overseeing the development of Minerva's seminar-based curriculum.

Minerva Schools at Keck Graduate Institute

In July 2013, Minerva Project partnered with the

to officially launch the Minerva Schools at Keck Graduate Institute. Minerva received WASC regional accreditation for five of its programs: the Bachelor of Science in Social Sciences, the Bachelor of Arts in Arts and Humanities, the Bachelor of Science in Natural Sciences, the Bachelor of Science in Computational Sciences, and the Bachelor of Science in Business. Minerva admitted its first class in 2014. The school offered places to 69 students out of 2,464 applications, and 29 students matriculated. This resulted in a 2.8% acceptance rate and a 42% yield. Starting in 2016, Minerva expanded into postgraduate education by offering a Master of Science in Decision Analysis. In 2020, Minerva created its Visiting Scholars year. The one-year program, completed remotely, offers the four Cornerstone Courses to students accepted into a leading college or university who face challenges attending in residence for the 2020–21 academic year due to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

. In 2023,

Reed Hastings Wilmot Reed Hastings Jr. (born October 8, 1960) is an American billionaire businessman. He is the co-founder and chairman of Netflix, Inc., which provides the Netflix streaming service. Hastings serves on a number of boards and works with various ...

, co-CEO of

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

, donated $20 million to Minerva University.

Academics

Courses are conducted as online

seminar A seminar is a form of academic instruction, either at an academic institution or offered by a commercial or professional organization. It has the function of bringing together small groups for recurring meetings, focusing each time on some part ...

s capped at 19 students. Minerva applies a 1972 study that shows that memory is enhanced by "deep" cognitive tasks. Such tasks include working with materials, applying it, and arguing about it instead of

rote memorization Rote learning is a memorization technique based on repetition (rhetorical device), repetition. The method rests on the premise that the recollection, recall of repeated material becomes faster the more one repeats it. Some of the alternatives to ...

. All classes begin with a short quiz and end with a second one later in the class; this is claimed to increase retention. Student performance is automatically recorded for tracking. Students initially take four "Cornerstone Courses" that introduce "Habits of Mind" and "Foundational Concepts" that cut across the sciences and humanities. The four "Cornerstone Courses" are Empirical Analyses, Formal Analyses, Complex Systems, and Multimodal Communications. In Empirical Analyses, students learn about evaluating and analyzing scientific methods and use that knowledge to build problem-solving proposal. In Formal Analyses, students learn to evaluate and perform data analyses, and perform design thinking skills using game theory and classification method. In a humanities class, students learn the classical techniques of rhetoric and develop basic persuasive skills. Finally, in social science class, students learn about the characteristics of complex systems (intended to represent social interaction), and leaderships, self-awareness, and negotiation. Minerva encourages students to use

massive open online course A massive open online course (MOOC ) or an open online course is an online course aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the World Wide Web, Web. In addition to traditional course materials, such as filmed lectures, readings, and p ...

s to learn what is typically taught in first-year courses. Professors are trained to use Minerva's proprietary learning platform, the Minerva Forum. Faculty retain

intellectual property rights Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...

to their research.

Facilities

Minerva maintains one residence hall in

, on Turk Street, as well as ones in

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, and

Taipei , nickname = The City of Azaleas , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Taiwan#Asia#Pacific Ocean#Earth , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country ...

. Minerva has no classroom facilities, since all classes are conducted through an active learning platform developed by the school, where students participate in seminar classes of up to 19 people.

Notable alumni

* Jade Bowler, British YouTuber known as Unjaded Jade; attended Minerva 2019–2023.

References

External links

* {{authority control Private universities and colleges in California Education in San Francisco 2012 establishments in California Universities and colleges in San Francisco Universities and colleges established in 2012 Distance education institutions based in the United States