Harvard vs. the Internet

Donald H. Pfister, Dean of Harvard Summer School, has sent a letter in response to my recent column and follow-up blog post. It is reprinted in full below.

Dean Pfister is right to note that Harvard Summer School has been operating successfully for a long time, since 1871. This is important context that I should have provided to readers.

That said, nothing in his letter contradicts anything I wrote. Harvard Summer School is an open admissions program taught by a combination of Harvard professors and people who are not Harvard professors. It markets itself as an opportunity to pay thousands of dollars to live in Natalie Portman’s old dorm, which is kind of creepy. And Harvard College does not accept credits earned from Harvard Summer School’s online courses.

Dean Pfister explains this last fact as simply a function of general university policy. “No online credit from any institution can be used toward graduation,” he writes. Really! That’s remarkable. Harvard believes that this particular mode of communication—one that has become an integral part of the way people in modern society live and interact, to the point where roughly one quarter of all college students take courses online—is so illegitimate that the university categorically refuses to recognize courses so taught, even courses that Harvard itself has, to quote Dean Pfister again, subjected to scrutiny whereby the courses are “vetted by departments to ensure they meet the standards for Harvard College credit.” Either that or they haven’t been subjected to such scrutiny, which re-raises the question of why they’re being sold as “Harvard” courses that are publicly advertised as “rigorous,” “Harvard-caliber,” and so forth.

Discriminating against a widely used method of teaching based solely on the mode of delivery irrespective of the course content, curriculum, instructor, assessment standards, etc. strikes me as a remarkably retrograde approach to higher learning for a major research university in 2010.

Here’s the letter:

Dear Editor of the Chronicle of Higher Education,

I am writing to clarify several statements made regarding Harvard Summer School in Kevin Carey’s commentary, “The Chimera of College Brands,” published June 6.

To provide context, Harvard Summer School has been in existence since 1871 and is the oldest academic summer session in the United States. The mission of the school is to open Harvard’s academic resources to a diverse audience during an intensive summer session. The school offers more than 300 courses in subjects in the sciences, humanities and writing. Included in this count are a small number of online courses. In addition, we offer 25 study abroad programs led by faculty directors. Students experience rigorous courses, study in world-class libraries, and can get hands on experience in state-of-the-art laboratories.

Approximately two-thirds of our faculty are affiliated with Harvard, including some of Harvard’s most distinguished teachers. The rest are visiting faculty members from other institutions, including nearby schools such as Boston University, the Museum of Fine Arts, Brandeis University and more distant schools such as University of Chicago, North Carolina State, and the Naval War College. All liberal arts courses are vetted by departments to ensure they meet the standards for Harvard College credit.

Our student population is diverse, encompassing traditional undergraduate and graduate students, working professionals studying for professional advancement, and students of all ages studying for personal enrichment or degree credit. Approximately 20% of our students are Harvard undergraduate or graduate students, in Arts and Sciences or from the professional schools, studying to fulfill degree requirements. It is true that enrollment is open to all with the exception of those courses offered abroad and in the Secondary School program where there is application and review.

Harvard College does indeed count the liberal arts courses and study abroad programs toward a Harvard degree and, having vetted them through the academic departments and programs, the courses often carry credit in the General Education program. As a matter of policy Harvard College does not accept online course credit. Thus, the 14 online courses we offer cannot be used to fulfill degree requirements by Harvard College students.

Indeed, no online credit from any institution can be used toward graduation. Most institutions accept our on-campus and online courses for transfer credit, although we advise students to check with their home institutions in advance of registering. In short, these are not “fake”Harvard credits but rather courses that receive scrutiny at various levels and courses that offer Harvard College and other students special opportunities, for example, to study languages not offered in other venues, to do hands on research in labs, and to study in the arts.

I hope that these brief comments regarding our programs, offerings, and activities help to set the record straight regarding Mr. Carey’s misconception about our serious academic commitment.

Yours truly,

Donald H. Pfister

Dean of Harvard Summer School

Asa Gray Professor of Systematic Botany and Curator of the Farlow Library and Herbarium Harvard University