Moving higher education to its next stage

Rosabeth Moss Kanter

This paper describes a new model for universities: a third stage of education (beyond undergraduate and graduate/professional schools) to prepare experienced leaders, in the period of their lives once called "retirement," for service activities addressing societal problems. This white paper is a proposal for universities to develop what could be the next great innovation in American (and global) higher education, on par with the creation of the modern graduate and professional school in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. It is a vision rooted in the notion that the purpose of the university is to serve society, and societal change demands innovation.