Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ How Dr. Papadakis Runs a Drexel University Like a Company

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community
I'm not going to say that everything Drexel University president Constantine Papadakis has done is wrong, because that would be in error. Nor will I hard on this Philadelphia University's poor rankings in national surveys, because I don't think these surveys are really accurate measures. There's a lot to like in Drexel's methodology, but there's also a lot to dislike. Running a school like a business sometimes means running it into the ground; in business, after all, failures are common. Schools don't have that luxury. And running it like a business means running it with more attention to the bottom line than to the product, which in the field of education is also a concern. Right now, I think, it's pretty easy to look at a traditional university and cherry-pick significant savings (though usually at the risk of outraging faculty). But being smart is not a synonym for being a business, and we should not fool ourselves into believing it is.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
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Last Updated: May 05, 2024 5:40 p.m.

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