Minerva University is a private higher-education institution founded in 2012 and headquartered in San Francisco, with additional locations in Tokyo, Buenos Aires and a rotating European city. Its academic model is built on active learning delivered through Forum, a proprietary web-based platform for synchronous, discussion-based seminars. The technical work underpinning the university spans educational technology, online learning platform development and synchronous video-based seminar delivery - disciplines that sit close to the engineering problems of real-time collaboration and remote instruction.
The undergraduate programme is a four-year interdisciplinary bachelor's degree in which students live and study across four cities on four continents, with each location integrated into the curriculum. Seminar classes are kept to 15-19 students, and the pedagogy eschews lectures in favour of discussion, critical thinking and practical application. A Master of Science in Decision Analysis serves working professionals seeking to drive innovation in their fields.
Minerva reports that its student body represents more than 100 nationalities, and that it has been ranked first in the WURI Most Innovative University ranking for four consecutive years, ahead of Stanford, MIT and Cambridge. Areas of focus across the institution include curriculum design and interdisciplinary education, cross-cultural experiential learning, and transferable skills such as communication, creative problem-solving and decision-making. Alumni have gone on to attend Oxford, Harvard and Stanford, won Rhodes, Schwarzman and Knight-Hennessy scholarships, launched funded startups and taken roles at organisations including Google, BCG and the World Bank.
