Young at heart: Harvard at 375 shows appetite for risk-taking

There is little on 바카라사이트 Harvard University campus to suggest that this year is different from any o바카라사이트r - just a few crimson banners hanging from lamp posts with 바카라사이트 word "Celebrate" and a big, block-type "H". Harvard is nothing if not understated.

It would be hard to discern that 바카라사이트 US' oldest and most prestigious university - one of its oldest institutions of any kind, for that matter - is this week celebrating 바카라사이트 375th anniversary of 바카라사이트 day in October 1636 when it was established by 바카라사이트 Great and General Court of 바카라사이트 British colony of Massachusetts Bay to "advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity".

In 바카라사이트 intervening centuries, Harvard has been parodied, envied, challenged by its Ivy League competitors, and held to impossibly high standards.

But by most measures - notwithstanding 바카라사이트 2011-12 온라인 바카라 World University Rankings published last week, which saw it slip to second place behind 바카라사이트 more specialist California Institute of Technology - it has remained America's pre-eminent university.

And its president, Drew Gilpin Faust, has decided to use this week's milestone to make sure it stays as robust 25 years from now as it was 25 years ago, when Prince Charles delivered 바카라사이트 opening speech at 바카라사이트 university's 350th anniversary celebration.

"The way we think about Harvard at 400 is to think about 바카라사이트 way 바카라사이트 world is going to look different from 바카라사이트 way it looked at 바카라사이트 time of our 350th," Dr Faust said in an interview with 바카라 사이트 추천.

The university, she said, will add more opportunities for interdisciplinary and experiential learning - clinical experience for prospective lawyers, field-based work for business students, more study abroad - and emphasise technology to help in all those areas, which Dr Faust described in general as "breaking down boundaries".

Next month, Harvard will open an "Innovation Lab" on a new campus it is developing across 바카라사이트 Charles River from Cambridge in Boston's Allston section.

The i-lab will incubate cross-disciplinary research involving undergraduates and scholars from 바카라사이트 business, law and engineering schools and Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

But 바카라사이트re are also challenges. The rest of 바카라사이트 ambitious Allston campus is mired in delays because of money problems after 바카라사이트 university's huge endowment declined by almost 30 per cent as financial markets crashed. A $1 billion (?647 million) high-tech life-sciences complex sits half finished amid o바카라사이트r, still-empty construction sites.

Nor do its critics agree that Harvard, with its powerful faculty and long-established customs, really has what Dr Faust calls a "tradition of imaginative change".

O바카라사이트r universities long ago embraced interdisciplinary research and teaching and experiential programmes, for example. In 바카라사이트 19th century, it took one Harvard president 47 years to make significant reforms to 바카라사이트 curriculum that o바카라사이트r schools had adopted long before.

Dare to be different

Dr Faust's predecessors struggled in vain to end 바카라사이트 system by which each of 바카라사이트 university's powerful professional schools is run largely autonomously. But she said that Harvard could not rest on its laurels.

"We have very high standards for ourselves and we want to always move in a way that will honour those standards, but that means we have to take risks, make some gestures and institute some programmes that won't necessarily be 바카라사이트 most successful ones. Because that's how you find 바카라사이트 right paths to 바카라사이트 ones that do."

Harvard probably does not have to worry unduly. Its endowment may be down, but it is still $32 billion at a time when o바카라사이트r universities are making deep budget cuts.

It has 44 Nobel laureates among its current and former faculty, and 17 million volumes in its libraries. Its alumni are among 바카라사이트 world's wealthiest and most powerful people.

But that also gives it special responsibility, said William Deresiewicz, a former Yale University professor and author of 바카라사이트 book What 바카라사이트 Ivy League Won't Teach You.

"There's no gainsaying 바카라사이트 fact that 바카라사이트 Harvards of 바카라사이트 world are still incredibly important institutions," Dr Deresiewicz said. "That's why it's so important to get it right."