WQU CEO Daphne Kis Discusses Rethinking the Roles and Goals of Higher Education

Last week at the 2021 Milken Global Conference, WorldQuant University CEO Daphne Kis joined a panel of experts to discuss rethinking the higher education model. With the COVID-19 pandemic massively disrupting how universities and educational institutions normally operate around the world, the three-day conference, held October 17-20, assembled the best minds to tackle the question of — What are the values and priorities of higher education in a post-COVID-19 crisis world?

As a panelist, Daphne exchanged vision and industry insights with the Milken higher education network to begin thinking about how to drive innovation in higher education models to keep up with growing workplace demands for lifelong learning, upskilling, and reskilling.

When it came to the discussion of educational value, the panelists tackled the topic from several angles. Some discussed higher education’s effect on a flourishing society, while others called outgrowing demand from prospective students to understand if and how their education would lead to a return on investment. Daphne focused on access and outcomes and on how WQU was designed from the outset to focus on these metrics to assess value.

All panelists agreed that technology and the new models of education that it has enabled have a place in the future of higher education, and that these new models disproportionately create access.

Additional panel discussion topics included the path forward for online learning, the democratization of the classroom, and the credentials of the future.

Daphne was joined by Jeffrey Sellingo of The Washington Post, G. Gabrielle Starr, President of Pomona College, Gene Block, Chancellor of the University of California, Los Angeles, and Jeff Maggioncalda, CEO of Coursera.

View a recording of the full session here.