In Optimizing The University - Why We Need a New Educational Model For A New Century I laid out some of the issues facing post-secondary science education and how changing student demographics and modern faculty responsibilities have exacerbated the challenges of adapting science education to fill the educational demands of modern society. I also discussed how the new knowledge gained from advanced assessment techniques have shown us the extent of the shortcomings.  

In Optimizing The University - Why We Need a New Educational Model for a New Century I discussed some of the issues facing post-secondary science education. In particular, that piece focused on how changing student demographics, modern faculty responsibilities and the new knowledge gained from advanced assessment techniques showed us that we need to fix fundamental aspects of science education if students are to receive the high quality education that is becoming increasingly important to individual and societal success.

Now I am going to discuss what this new optimized university - our university of 2020 - will look like. While academics might wish for an ideal university with unlimited resources and no real constraints, it is more useful to ask what is possible in the real world.

So I will discuss what we need for an attainable university that provides the best undergraduate education possible within certain basic constraints on resources and organizational structures - a truly “optimized” university. The constraints are based on the pragmatic assumptions that resources in support of higher education will not dramatically increase and most of the long standing structures such as disciplines and departments will be largely intact, as will the current broader faculty responsibilities.

There are currently great needs and great opportunities for improvement in post-secondary science education. As world education improves, we need to provide more students with complex understanding and problem solving skills in technical subjects to allow them to be responsible and successful citizens in modern society.

Emerging research indicates that our colleges and universities are not achieving this. However, there are great opportunities to improve this situation using advances in the understanding of how people learn science and advances in educational technology.