There’s ample evidence that a more entrepreneurial approach to postsecondary education is overdue. While some pioneering ventures are under way, numerous barriers continue to slow innovation and thwart experimentation, both in traditional institutions and in startup ventures that aspire to disrupt the existing marketplace. Against this backdrop, the Kauffman Foundation convened a diverse group of leading education entrepreneurs, academics, and policy analysts to examine the challenges facing U.S. higher education.

The results of the group’s deliberations can found in a just-released Kauffman Foundation report that offers a range of ambitious ideas for reinventing higher education and outlines a broad set of actions to improve college access, educational quality, and graduates’ success in the work force. These include:

• tackling campus-level obstacles to innovation by giving more funding to institutions with better student outcomes
• reforming accreditation to place the fewest possible restrictions on new and existing programs
• improving academic productivity and dramatically driving down tuition by exploring new technology-based pedagogies that have low marginal costs
• filling information gaps by providing prospective students with far more information about the institutions they attend, including how graduates fare in the job market
• making it easier to start “charter colleges,” akin to K-12 charter schools, that receive significant flexibility in theiroperations in exchange for improved student outcomes