Dan Smith, dean of Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, was recently featured in The Economist on innovative new approaches universities can take to help combat rising tuition costs facing students.  As Dean Smith articulates, business schools are perfectly positioned to develop new ways of paying for higher education.  

Under his direction, the Kelley School is currently exploring an “education circle of life” model of financial support for students.  This concept involves the creation of a consulting consortium in which teams of students help mid-sized client companies identify, assess and capitalize on global growth opportunities.  As firms pay a fee for the student consulting services, a portion goes toward the students’ tuition costs while the remainder is applied to an endowment account that provides financial aid for deserving students. 

The education circle of life model also can create growth for the mid-sized companies utilizing the services, which in turn can produce new jobs.  For more detail on this innovative concept, follow the link to the full piece in The Economist.