In a world where creativity is the #1 skill sought by employers (World Economic Forum, 2023), one new university is taking that challenge seriously. The London Interdisciplinary School (LIS) is pioneering a fresh approach to higher education by breaking down barriers between disciplines and the real world.

Founded in 2017, LIS opened its doors in 2021 as the first UK university in decades to grant degree-awarding powers from inception. Its mission? To prepare students for the complex, interconnected problems of today—from climate change to AI ethics—through a curriculum built entirely around real-world challenges.

Students at LIS don’t just study traditional subjects. They engage in “problem modules” that integrate methods like data science, ethnography, and narrative storytelling. Instead of lectures, LIS promotes a “prep culture” for interactive, project-based learning—complete with paid internships, consultancy reports, and video essays.

Co-founder Carl Gombrich, a physicist, philosopher, and musician, brings a unique vision of creativity and polymathy. He believes education should cultivate the kind of “transformational creativity” needed for deep innovation—and LIS is designed to do just that.

As graduates move into careers at Goldman Sachs, KPMG, or doctoral programs at Cambridge, LIS is showing how an education grounded in synthesis, creativity, and interdisciplinary thinking can equip students to shape—not just survive—the future. Read more about the LIS at my new article on Forbes.com at https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanpenprase/2025/04/11/synthesis-and-creativity-at-the-london-interdisciplinary-school/

My most recent piece in Forbes.com describes some of the amazing work of the Honoris United Universities network, which operates across Africa with 16 institutions in 26 cities and over 100,000 students. The piece includes an interview with their CEO, Jonathan Louw, and one of their founders, Laura Kakon. Honoris has created a network of private universities in Tunisia, Morocco, Nigeria, and South Africa and provides affordable education to thousands of students in engineering, health sciences, architecture, and other fields. Many of these are new universities pioneering new engineering education models like the Conceive, Design, Implement, Operate (CDIO) model. The piece also describes the founding of the ESPRIT University in Tunisia and EMSI in Morocco, both of which provide top-notch engineering education and send their graduates worldwide to top firms, offering promising futures for thousands of new young graduates.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanpenprase/2025/04/02/honoris-united-universitiesnew-higher-education-options-for-africa/

Using the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas as a starting point, where over 1500 Chinese companies exhibited, I have written a piece describing how Shenzhen is becoming one of perhaps several Silicon Valleys in China. Shenzhen is home to 35% of Chinese companies at CES, and is one of the fast-growing cities in what China refers to as the Greater Bay Area, which includes Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Macao and 8 other cities in Guangdong province. Together they are building an innovation ecosystem rivalling the US Silicon Valley’s.

Within Zhenzhen is a new institution, XbotPark and InnoX, that is creating a pipeline of China’s next generation of leaders in high-tech product development. InnoX and XbotPark were developed by Professor Li Zexiang, who is one of China’s top entrepreneurs.   The most famous of Li’s companies is DJI, which was started by Li Zexiang’s student at HKUST, Frank Wang. DJI is the world leader in consumer drones and now holds 75% of global market share with a valuation over $20 billion US. To learn more about InnoX and XBot Park, I interviewed Carol Yu, who is a founding Partner and the Associate Dean of Shenzhen InnoX Academy. Yu describes how InnoX and XBot Park work, and how it is beginning to transform STEM education in China and around the world

The piece is available on Forbes.com at this link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanpenprase/2025/02/25/a-new-school-for-chinese-innovatorsinnox-and-xbot-park/

In my most recent piece at Forbes.com – I examine the impact of new universities in Pakistan such as Aga Khan University, Lahore Institute of Management Sciences (LUMS), Forman Christian College, and Habib University. These new universities provide diversity to Pakistan’s higher education system and are providing new and innovative forms of higher education. Pakistan itself has a rapidly growing population and is home to the third largest population of college-aged students in the world, after China and India, so keeping the most talented students within Pakistan to start new companies and provide opportunities for its future is vital for both Pakistan and the world. The piece also features an interview with Wasif Risvi, founding president of Habib University, who describes in some detail how Habib can provide “epistemic reparation” for Pakistan through its unique liberal arts curriculum rooted in the concept of yoshin, which roughly translates as grace. Habib is helping students rediscover the beauty and power of Pakistan’s culture to help them shape Pakistan’s future. I also had the opportunity to visit Habib University as part of a review committee in November. I was deeply impressed by the campus community and its commitment to students and to liberal arts. The piece is available at Forbes.com at this link:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanpenprase/2025/02/18/new-forms-of-higher-education-for-building-pakistans-future/

My new piece on Western Governors University on forbes.com is now out, and it explores how competency-based education, or CBE, has provided a more flexible and adaptable way for students to complete courses and their degrees. Instead of a fixed time for a course, students can demonstrate mastery of a well-defined set of tasks to move on to the next part of their education. The way that WGU has been built around CBE gives it a competitive advantage and has helped it become the largest university in the US, with over 180,000 students. My piece explores how WGU has reconceptualized how a university works, with a student-centered approach with faculty, tech staff, and administration all locked in on maintaining the “momentum” of students in their learning. My piece includes an interview with WGU Provost Courtney Hills McBeth and describes CBE programs at SNHU, Purdue Global, Northern Arizona University, and East Texas A&M University. The piece is online at Forbes.com at the link below:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanpenprase/2025/01/21/a-deep-dive-into-wgu-and-competency-based-education/

I have been thinking about how Michael Porter’s model for the Five Forces of Competitive Strategy, long a centerpiece of business strategy, provides a useful lens for considering the seismic forces bearing down on higher education today.

These forces, which include competitive rivalry, the threat of new entrants, the bargaining power of suppliers, the bargaining power of buyers, and the threat of substitute products or services, apply to universities and colleges as they compete for dwindling supplies of students, face threats from new universities and substitutions in the form of micro-credentials, and face increasing bargaining power from students and parents as they reconsider the value of a college education. This piece is now on Forbes.com – and enumerates how these forces are reshaping our universities and colleges and how they will need to evolve and adapt to survive. Here is a link to the piece:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanpenprase/2024/12/23/the-five-forces-reshaping-higher-education/