 Seal of Minerva University | |
Former name | Minerva Schools atKeck Graduate Institute |
|---|---|
| Motto | Sapientia Critica |
Motto in English | Critical Wisdom |
| Type | Private university |
| Established | 2012; 13 years ago (2012) |
| Founder | Ben Nelson |
| Accreditation | WASC Senior College and University Commission |
| President | Mike Magee |
| Provost | Patrice McMahon |
Total staff | 144[1] |
| Undergraduates | 637[2] |
| Postgraduates | 12 |
| Address | 14 Mint Plaza ,,,United States |
| Campus | Urban international |
| Website | www |
Minerva University is aprivateresidentialuniversity headquartered inSan Francisco, California. It was established in 2012 byBen Nelson and opened in 2014 asMinerva Schools atKeck Graduate Institute, becoming Minerva University in 2021. Classes are conducted remotely. Students live together inresidences in different cities each year, beginning in San Francisco and returning there for graduation. As of 2025[update], they live inTokyo for theirsophomore year,Buenos Aires for theirjunior year, andTaipei for theirsenior year.[3]
In April 2012,Minerva Project receivedUS$25,000,000 in venture funding fromBenchmark Capital to create an undergraduate program.[4][5][6] In March 2013,Stephen Kosslyn was hired as foundingDean, having previously served as Director of theCenter for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences atStanford University and Dean of Social Sciences atHarvard University. Kosslyn was responsible for hiring the heads of the four colleges in the School of Arts & Science and overseeing the development of Minerva's seminar-based curriculum,[7] before leaving in 2018.[6]
In July 2013, Minerva Project partnered with theKeck Graduate Institute to officially launch the Minerva Schools at Keck Graduate Institute.[6][8]
Minerva Schools launched with five undergraduate programs: Bachelor of Arts in Arts and Humanities, Bachelor of Science in Business, Bachelor of Science in Computational Sciences, Bachelor of Science in Natural Sciences, and Bachelor of Science in Social Sciences. The first class of students was admitted in 2014,[9] with one-time free tuition for four years and a gap year afterfreshman year.[10] Minerva offered places to 69 students out of 2,464 applications, and 29 students matriculated. This resulted in a 2.8% acceptance rate and a 42% yield. The second class consisted of 113 students.[10]
In 2016, Minerva expanded into postgraduate education by offering a Master of Science in Decision Analysis.[6][11] In 2018, theHong Kong University of Science and Technology partnered with Minerva to permit its students to take Minerva's cross-disciplinary Cornerstone Courses.[6]
The Minerva Institute for Research and Scholarship was independently accredited by theWestern Association of Schools and Colleges in 2021, becoming Minerva University.[2][12][13][14] Mike Magee became President in 2022.[15] In early 2023, the university received a $20 million donation fromReed Hastings, co-CEO ofNetflix and a former president of theCalifornia State Board of Education, who had previously donated funds for scholarships;[16] Hastings has pledged a total donation of $100 million over 10 years.[3] Minerva has also received support from theNippon Foundation.[3]
As of January 2025[update], Minerva had 637 undergraduates and 12 graduate students,[2] down from 603 and 53 respectively in fall 2023.[1] In 2020, it was ranked the most selective university in the developed world, with an acceptance rate of 2%;[9] with an acceptance rate below 4% in 2024, in 2025 it was ranked the third most selective university in the United States byNiche.com.[3][17] Enrollment is 85% from outside the country; Minerva does not acceptPell Grants.[3]
Courses are conducted online and capped at 20 students.[3] Minerva emphasizesactive learning,[9] applying a 1972 study that shows that memory is enhanced by "deep" cognitive tasks such as working with materials, applying it, and arguing about it rather thanrote memorization.[18] Classes begin with a short quiz and end with a second quiz; this is claimed to increase retention. There are no final exams; students are graded on their engagement and the quality of their thought in discussions.[3][10] They initially take four "Cornerstone Courses",[6] including Empirical Analyses, Complex Systems, and Multimodal Communications, which introduce "Habits of Mind" and "Foundational Concepts" that cut across the sciences and humanities.[9] Minerva encourages students to usemassive open online courses to learn what is typically taught in first-year courses.[19] In response to theCOVID-19 pandemic, the university offered a Visiting Scholars year in 2020–21 under which students who had been accepted into a leading college or university and were unable to fulfill residential requirements could take the Cornerstone Courses.[20]
Minerva emphasizes a mission to "solve complex global problems" and "improve the human condition" through education and an approach of taking students out of their "comfort zone".[3] Part of earning a Minerva degree is "global immersion": class cohorts move to a different international city each year. After spendingfreshman year in the impoverishedSan FranciscoTenderloin neighborhood, as of 2025[update], they live in the wealthyMinato ward ofTokyo for theirsophomore year, in the fashionablePalermo section ofBuenos Aires for theirjunior year,[21] and inTaipei for theirsenior year; the university has formerly had classes spend semesters inBerlin,[22]Hyderabad,[23]London, andSeoul.[3][9][24][25][26] Part of the curriculum is "location-based", and while living in the Tenderloin, students are expected to dovolunteer work.[3] In 2022, Minerva students made a documentary about the neighborhood titledLeft on Turk.[3][27]
Faculty are timed to prevent lecturing for more than five minutes.[10] They are trained to use Minerva's proprietary learning platform, the Minerva Forum,[19][24][28][29] which color-codes students based on participation.[9] The university does not sponsor research,[3] but faculty retainintellectual property rights to research they publish.[19][30]
Minerva University does not have classrooms, a library, or an athletics program.[3][9] Its offices are in San Francisco, where it rents several floors in a building on Turk Street in theTenderloin neighborhood as afreshman dormitory,[3][31][32][33] and accommodation inNob Hill for graduation.[3] Until 2019, the freshman dorm was onMarket Street; the university chose to move to a lower-income neighborhood.[3] Students are similarly accommodated in rented dormitory facilities in the other cities where they study.