Bernard Luskin
CEO and Senior Provost
Touro University Worldwide
Bernie Luskin has worked extensively where communications technology meets higher education. He has also been involved in a number of launches and business deals of note. Today he's responsible for taking one of the Touro University enterprises to its next level.
Briefly describe Bernie Lander, Touro's founder.
An extraordinary man! Walking any street in New York or Los Angeles with him attracted a crowd. A true scholar, he built Touro from the ground up. He had been a key advisor to Fiorello LaGuardia, chosen for his vision and passion for social uplift based on the promise of education within a diverse community. When he died early this year at 94, he was likely the oldest college president in the world.
Where can the physical components of Touro be seen today?
All over New York City. Administered from a Manhattan headquarters in Chelsea, travel uptown, and you'll see one of Touro's four medical campuses across the street from the Apollo Theater. There 15 more campuses in New York City. Elsewhere in New York State is a remarkable law school. You'll find a very large Touro medical campus in Las Vegas and another in Vallejo, California. And a newly aquired medical campus in New York's Westchester county. Abroad, Touro campuses can be found in Moscow, Berlin, Paris and Jerusalem. In the United States I'm overseeing two campuses in the Los Angeles area.
Is Touro a main campus with branches or a collection of free-standing campuses?
Touro is the only higher education organization that I know of whose components are separately accredited by regional associations, specifically Middle States and WASC. Each is a free-standing campus. Ownership throughout is not-for-profit, though there is a corporate structure of governance. Touro's president is now Alan Kadish, a well-known research cardiologist.
Briefly explain the former Touro entity that's not included in the present-day organization.
In 1999 Touro launched Touro University International, fully online in Orange County, California. As it grew, Touro talked with a venture capital firm about spinning it off, and did so for $100 million plus. It's now completely separate, named TUI University, and it's doing well.
Leaving Touro for a moment, what is the most significant new development in online learning?
There are two. First, online learning has achieved critical mass. Second, practitioners are adept at the psychology of how people learn. Magnetic resonance imaging research techniques show brain functions with great clarity. The technology of IQ and the mind are taking online learning to someplace special.
You believe this growing acceptability involves a viewpoint shift among buyers of college. Please discuss.
Lifelong learning is now widely accepted within the population. That same population is adept at the use of time and money to gain a learning objective. Online learning meshes well with their talents of time and money usage.
Is there another factor working to improve acceptability of online learning?
The world is human-centered and screen deep. Every tech device is - or becomes - a communications device.
What high-rollers in California and elsewhere are poised to take advantage of the growing acceptability of online learning?
Major publishers like Pearson, McGraw-Hill and others are searching for entry points. I suspect even Rupert Murdoch is looking to get involved. The Washington Post/Kaplan are well invested and quite successful already. They've also shown it's not a job for amateurs.
How is Touro poised to take advantage of it?
We understand that the future is with the learner. The success path for online providers of tomorrow starts with that realization.