What can Higher Education learn from SpaceX ?

For the first time since 2011, the US recently sent the first Astronauts to Space Station from U.S. soil. From 2011 until this launch, the Russian agency Roscosmos with its Soyuz capsule and Russian rockets was only means of transport for the International Space Station.

SpaceX changed that game.

But how could SpaceX succeed in sending a human to orbit for 35% cheaper than Soyouz or Boeing for an estimated cost of 58 millions $ per Astronaut ?

One word: reusability.

SpaceX has been able to design, build, test and operate its reusable capsule for space shuttles, and thus making significant economies of scale .

How could Higher Education learn about this reusability use case?

Reusability of content is the first thing that comes to mind.

Teachers used to be paid to deliver the same content live year after year. Institutions could help teachers find ways to reuse part of the content, materials and discussions to asynchronous learning platforms.

This would allow universities to increase their enrollment (and revenues) while helping teachers get some time back that could be used for growing other parts of the student experience like mentorship, personalized feedback, organizing peer to peer learning sessions etc.

Property re-usability is another topic.

Higher Education institutions are renting or owning significant property assets, which can be unused or underutilized for many weeks or months a year, when students are on holidays or in external activities.

Take BYU-Idaho for instance, a private US University. They grew the capacity of the school by 50 percent without adding infrastructure by getting rid of the downtime that many schools have in the summer and operates year-round at full capacity.*

*Source: https://ssir.org/articles/entry/design_thinking_for_higher_education#

So, who will be the Elon Musk of Higher Education ?