Changemaker Campus

Launched in 2008, Ashoka offers the Changemaker Campus designation to leading institutions in social innovation education. These institutions share the vision for higher education to become the next global driver of social change by transforming the educational experience into a world-changing experience.

Why build a Changemaker Campus?

Higher education boasts an impressive track record:

No other industry has been such a reliable guarantor of economic prosperity, instigator of social movements and democratic action, and engine for scientific breakthroughs. No other societal institution transforms so many lives at such a fundamental level with sustained impact for generations.

But higher education is experiencing a crisis of identity and relevance:

Rising costs, the increasing mismatch between skills learned and those required by the workforce, and a growing feeling of unease and restlessness of a generation entering a world fundamentally different than the one higher education was designed to address.

And yet, we all agree:

Solving the most complex social and environmental problems will require sparking and sustaining collaboration among key innovators across sectors and experts with deep knowledge – from geology to art history to neuroscience – to drive towards collective impact.

We need higher education more than ever – and better than ever:

How can we work together to secure the role of the university as driver of innovation – tangibly moving the needle on concrete social and environmental problems, and educating generations of competent and confident changemakers? Once investment in transportation and manufacturing capacity was crucial to catalyze the industrial revolution.

Now is the time to invest in the entrepreneurial university – we call it a Changemaker Campus – as the essential infrastructure for the innovation revolution.