Penn GSE and Erudient Announce $10,000 Prize for Innovation in Borderless Education

February 3, 2012 - Philadelphia, PA and Bangalore, India, Feb. 3rd, 2012 – Erudient and the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education (Penn GSE) proudly announce the 2012 Erudient Borderless Education Prize for Innovation in Education to Serve Emerging & Developed Countries. The newly established Borderless Education Prize, which awards $10,000 to the entrepreneur that best addresses educational challenges globally, rather than at a regional/country level, is part of the third annual 2012 Milken-Penn GSE Education Business Plan Competition.

“Now more than ever, innovation in education can have a truly global impact, and entrepreneurs worldwide are answering the call,” said Penn GSE Vice Dean Doug Lynch. “For this year’s competition, we received over 50 business plans from 20 different foreign countries, and those numbers keep growing.”

The intent of the prize, sponsored by Erudient and the Networking Education Entrepreneurs for Social Transformation (NEST), is to create new thought and structure for education solutions that can address the challenges facing students, practitioners, and the education systems globally, and to support the growth and success of their students and educators alike. All semi-finalists for the 2012 Competition are eligible for the Erudient Borderless Education Prize, and are encouraged to submit their concepts for consideration. 

“By engaging entrepreneurs and encouraging them to experiment and innovate, we can accelerate the pace of education transformation to be truly borderless, and enrich the lives of our students, teachers, and communities,” said Madan Padaki, CEO of Erudient. “With each new idea, we are one step closer to empowering an entire generation of life-long learners.” 

About the Milken-PennGSE Education Business Plan Competition

Launched in 2010 as a partnership between PennGSE and the Milken Family Foundation, this year’s event culminates with a live competition on the Penn campus on June 19th, 2012, and will award $120,000 in total funding through the following six prizes:  

  • The Milken Family Foundation First Prize ($25,000) and Second Prize ($15,000).
  • The American Public University System Prize for Innovation in Online Education ($25,000).
  • The Educational Services of America Prize for Innovation in the fields of Special Education and At-Risk Students ($20,000).
  • The Erudient Education Prize for Innovation in Borderless Education ($10,000).
  • The Startl Prize for Open Educational Resources ($25,000). 

For official details about eligibility, competition guidelines, and more, go to www.nestcentral.org.

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About Erudient

Erudient partners with Universities globally, powering their journey on the path of education transformation. It does so by deploying its proprietary 3I-3E model to help the Partner University manage critical inter-relations between three pillars of education – students, academic & institute.

Erudient offers comprehensive solutions to engage with students, enrich their learning experience and to empower institutions. It helps the Partner University in embracing the changes and proactively preparing for the future by identifying global trends in education, deploying this information to improve existing processes, and creating experiments within the University system that will foster innovation. For further information about Erudient, please visit www.erudient.com.

About Penn GSE

Penn GSE is one of the nation’s premier “research ed schools.” A small percentage of education programs in the U.S. offer doctoral degrees at all, a tiny fraction are located at flagship research universities, and no other education school enjoys a University environment as supportive of practical knowledge-building as the University of Pennsylvania.

Penn GSE has long been known for excellence in qualitative research, language and literacy studies, practitioner inquiry and teacher education. Over the last 15 years, Penn GSE has also developed remarkable strengths in quantitative research, policy studies, evaluation, higher education, and psychology and human development. The School is remarkably entrepreneurial, launching innovative degree programs for practicing professionals and unique partnerships with local educators. For further information about Penn GSE, please visit www.gse.upenn.edu/.

Contact: Kat Stein, Exec. Director of Communications / katstein@gse.upenn.edu / (215) 898-9642