Clifton International University (CIU)

The Clifton International University (CIU) questions traditional assumptions about higher education, unbundling faculty roles and challenging the need for residency in credentialing. Still credit-based, the proposed university will use this only as a starting point in a pragmatic approach to individualized lifelong learning and workforce development.

This new paradigm of learning is based on a streamlined structure that effectively leverages inexpensive web technology, doing away with much of the infrastructure associated with universities. CIU does not compete for funding, instead taking an entrepreneurial approach, like a business start-up, it will grow only as enrollments, relying on public/private partnerships and a variety of revenue streams. Tuition and fees are disaggregated, with students paying only for what they want and get in services, cutting out hidden subsidies.

CIU is a world-wide, not institution-centered, initiative; thereby promoting collaboration – not competition. Rather, all institutions stand to benefit through increased enrollments generated by proposed university students. Institutions that are landlocked in enrollment, with no room to grow except through additional budget or tuition increases, the proposed university will provide a way to efficiently bridge scarce resources across the Commonwealth. It will do what no one institution or collaboration has been able to do, in part because of rivalry and issues of resource allocation.

Many new virtual university efforts fail because they try to do too much. Cost studies show that the economy of scale needed for building online programs is very high. The proposed university has a limited but critical mission and will increase revenues and decrease costs per student FTE at other institutions through partnerships and outsourcing that promote best practices. With the unmet demand of enrollment projections, the need for continuous training in a knowledge economy, increasing numbers of non-traditional students, the problems of underserved populations, and the overcrowding of bricks and mortar facilities, Pakistan needs a new paradigm for learning – the Clifton International University.

The University aims at implementing and institutionalizing the emerging possibilities of constructivism based E-Learning to support balanced international development. An increasing share of companies and institutions in region is part of the knowledge-driven economy. Employees and non-traditional students need to be endowed with academic knowledge, which has to be updated consistently during the working life.

Learning via Internet is the key to meet this challenge. Online education enhances the accessibility to academic education and professional training. The people can integrate better learning activities into working life and they can be provided with learning content more independent of the presence of educational institutions in their surroundings. This opens new possibilities to a more equal supply of initiating region with academic education via Internet to support the development of balanced regions. This becomes even more relevant in the course of the transformation to information society and knowledge-driven economy, which requires even more up-to-date knowledge. E-Learning offers should adopt the regional structures and needs, offer the learners to finalize their single learning activities with an internationally recognized Bachelor, Master or PhD degrees.

Clifton International University specifically aims

• to be a key player in the rapidly developing multilingual and multicultural market for digital media used in higher education, further education and professional training (E-Learning),
• to design, produce and distribute high-quality E-Content  products and services (internationalization), which are easily accessible and adapt them rapidly to the requirements of the target markets (localization),
• to pool resources and share and specialize the expertise available in order to achieve a higher quality of education and training,
• to experience the educational mix for future professional needs