During my recent trip, I was intrigued to find out that the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System (MNSCU) combines its 32 institutions, including 25 two-year colleges and seven state universities to be the largest single provider of higher education in the state of Minnesota. This is very impressive as the colleges and universities operate 54 campuses in 47 Minnesota communities and serve about 250,000 students in credit-based courses. Overall, the system produces about 34,000 graduates each year.

MNSCU in effect brings all the higher education in the state under a single organizational structure. Technically though, each organization is separate. University of Minnesota, for example, likes to say they pre-exist the state. But I don't think this level of coordination happens elsewhere in Unites States. I know in my home state of California there are three distinct organizations:  The University of California, California State University system, and the community college system.

But even the community college system is not really a system, but a collection of independent colleges. In effect, they're all synchronized by a master plan that gets updated every decade or so. I think California and other states would be well served to adopt a MNSCU model because this model strives to meet the personal and career goals of a wide range of individual learners. At the same time, they go a step further with an “Accountability Dashboard”, job opportunities and networking, as well as publications and more to help provide value to students and faculty that are part of this extended network.