As much attention as innovation is attracting in the business world, it’s perhaps not surprising that the world of academia is also re-thinking the importance of innovation and creativity within the curriculum. In one notable example, the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs recently announced the creation of the Bachelor of Innovation™ (BI) family of degrees. After debating which elements of engineering, entrepreneurship, business and law should be blended together to form the basis of an innovation academic program, the university finalized the creation of an “Innovation Core.” This core has some unique aspects to it, including the use of long-term, multi-disciplinary teams working on real projects for companies; a course in proposal preparation and responding to RFPs; and an undergraduate law course with half of it dedicated to intellectual property issues.

The Bachelor of Innovation™ program is not a degree in innovation, it’s actually a family of related majors (much like a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science) with a common core supporting a mix of degrees. The university currently offers 5 BI degrees and expects to add more soon. The core of the majors is the same (e.g. BI in Business and BI in EE have exactly the same required courses), only the electives are different.

[image: The Bachelor of Innovation]