Indiana University East is being recognized both within Indiana and nationally for creating a new model for higher education that is productive, efficient and of high quality.  IU East’s, growth – a 65-percent enrollment increase over the past four years – innovation, and community college collaboration have garnered national attention.

On December 1 IU East Chancellor Nasser Paydar participated on a panel discussion with 35 national and state correspondents and editors from National Public Radio (NPR).  The discussion centered on broader higher education trends and productivity.  The panel was organized and hosted by the Lumina Foundation in Indianapolis.  The Lumina Foundation is the nation’s largest foundation dedicated exclusively to increasing students’ access and success in postsecondary education.  Also on the panel were Teresa Lubbers, Indiana Commissioner for Higher Education, and Jeff Stanley, senior associate at HCM Strategists in Washington, D.C.

“IU East is seen as an institution on the move that understands the need to offer high quality programs at affordable tuition rates, through innovations that increase the efficiency of operations and the productivity of our faculty and staff,” Paydar said.

Next week Paydar will speak at the 2011 Big Ideas Fest in Half Moon Bay, Calif.  His presentation, “For Hire: Entrepreneurs at the Precipice of Higher Education,” is Monday, December 5.

According to Big Ideas Fest, the annual event is an extraordinary immersion into collaboration and design that focuses on transformational change in K-20 education.  The event gathers top minds to share their work and ideas in an environment that encourages risk-taking and overall imagining of the impossible.

“The purpose is to bring people from across the country in different disciplines to talk about how you have made changes,” Paydar said.  “It’s really another opportunity to talk about the good work of IU East.”

IU East was recently recognized as a model for regional campuses nationwide in a report – “Regional Campuses’ Contributions to the State and National Higher Education Goals: A Field Report from Indiana with a Case Study of Indiana University East” – commissioned by the Indiana Chamber Foundation with support from the Lumina Foundation.