Ross Dean: 'Just Give The Content Away'

The Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan

‘IS THERE ANXIETY? SURE. BUT PEOPLE ARE ALSO EXCITED’

The faculty sessions—called “seeing around the corner”—invite faculty to opine on big themes that can shake the way education is taught and delivered, ranging from globalization to technology. “Most higher education organizations have a high aversion to failure,” says DeRue. “It’s my responsibility to lower that fear. Many organizations don’t even have the conversation. So I say let’s try ten experients. If six fail, that is fine. Four didn’t. Is there anxiety? Sure. But people are also excited.”

DeRue says the school also is facing several big strategic choices on its global strategy. “In five years, we’ve increased the number of global experiences by 316% from 100 to 416 that undergraduate students can choose from. And this year is the first in history where more than half the MAP projects were outside the U.S. In executive education, we have an office in Hong Kong, and we have people on the ground in India. But we haven’t used the capabilities of the university and taken them global. I don’t know what the answer is, but we have choices to make.”

Like all deans, he also identifies fundraising as a key goal, along with wanting to redefine the relationship most alumni have with the business schools. “The MBA is not a two-year transaction,” he says. “I think there is a world of opportunity there.”

THE iTUNES MODEL OF HIGHER EDUCATION

Whatever transpires, DeRue believes that on-campus, face-to-face education is here to stay. He views MOOCs, massive open online courses, as “the textbooks of the future” and sees strong parallels between higher education and the music industry. “Music went through wave after wave of innovation from vinyl, to cassettes, to CDs. But then iTunes came along and disaggregated content. Now music is basically free. I see this going in three tiers.

“First, higher education content is and will be free,” he says. “We should just give the content away. Everybody says it will hurt the brands, but I don’t think that is true.”

He notes that MIT’s online learning initiative, which put teaching of MIT courses online free to anyone in the world, did not damage the university’s on-campus learning. In fact, it exposed the MIT brand to a new audience in every corner of the globe. “MIT did this and it didn’t hurt them,” says DeRue. “It’s largely a commodity, and it should be free.

‘THE ON-CAMPUS DEGREE IS YOUR PREMIUM PRODUCT’

“Tier two is iTunes. Credentials are disaggregating the degree just as iTunes made it possible to buy the two songs you wanted rather the entire CD you didn’t want from an artist. We’ll now give you a credential in finance based on the work you’ve done in a MOOC. Our industry will provide a whole swath of low-cost micro-credentials in the future. You don’t have to buy the degree. You can buy the course and the credential that goes with it.

“And the third tier is live music. In the music industry, it’s where most of the money is made and it is growing. The same thing is true for business education. Many need to get something more than just the song. The on-campus degree is your premium product. It’s live music.”