Change Higher Education

At Offida i-strategies is renewing Higher Education.
An educational experiment that aims to convert a frustration into an opportunity.

The frustration of having a European academic system that produces excellent quality research but has difficulties in transferring it to society.

The i-strategies challenge is to pilot a more impactful and replicable model of higher education based on five pillars.

Impact. Students and researchers will apply their theoretical approaches through concrete projects developed in the “societal departments” offered by the Marche region stakeholders. This way, universities will transfer knowledge more effectively, validating their research through bottom-up feedback. On the other side, local stakeholders will grow faster through innovation. A multi-beneficial perspective that keeps together universities’ social responsibility and local development.

Internationalization. The i-strategies learning experiences are all international, involving university students and researchers from worldwide and the Marche region’s local stakeholders. A glocal and dialogic framework that allows international actors to learn weaknesses and best practices from a specific social context meanwhile will increasethe local stakeholders’ cosmopolitan perspective.

Multi-knowledge. Knowledge is provided by more than academies, and it is never monodisciplinary. Knowledge is multidisciplinary and offered in non-formal and informal ways, even through experiences enriching the student’s education pathway. In our vision, we integrate and recognize the value of interdisciplinarity, informal and non-formaleducation.

Financially sustainability. Besides public funds, a long-term sustainable higher education model must attract private resources and grants. The key is to use the knowledge capital universities own as leverage for fundraising. Training researchers in project grants skills and setting up impactful development departments is a priority from the i-strategy perspective.

Replicability. The i-strategies higher education experiment aims to be replicable in other socio-economic and cultural contexts, especially affected by poor innovation and lack of human resources, for example, rural territories, where a more impactful higher education model can represent a powerful leverage for local development.