Debating the Ideas

IEI understands that it will take a significant commitment of resources and people to find solutions right for all of North Carolina’s higher education institutions and all the people it serves.

Through IEI’s model public policy process, IEI sought to bring new combinations of stakeholders together in order to spark new and different conversation around higher education. Discussion and debate across sectors of business, education and government would bring innovative ideas to the work of Transforming Higher Education.

After conducting extensive research and speaking with various leaders across the state, IEI convened its Working Groups in fall 2006. The Working Groups were charged with identifying a set of priorities critical for higher education to address for North Carolina to remain the competitive state it is today.

The recommendations of the Working Groups were then fed into the 2007 IEI Forum, where they were validated and refined by more than 1,000 of North Carolina’s leaders from business, government, nonprofits and higher education. After two days of debate, attendees walked away with a sense of urgency to continue to move the ball forward in regards to transforming North Carolina’s system of higher education.