What the edX Acquisition Means for the Future of Higher Education

by Vijay Govindarajan, Anup Srivastava and Luminita Enache

July 15, 2021

Thomas Barwick/Getty Images

Summary.

Tech company 2U recently announced an agreement to buy edX’s assets from Harvard and MIT for $800 million. How will this transform the business of education, and how can traditional learning institutions adapt?

Vijay Govindarajan is the Coxe Distinguished Professor at Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business, a Dartmouth-wide chair and the highest distinction awarded to Dartmouth faculty; a Faculty Partner in the Silicon Valley incubator Mach49; and Senior Advisor at the strategy consulting firm Acropolis Advisors. He is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. His latest book is Fusion Strategy: How Real-Time Data and AI Will Power the Industrial Future. His Harvard Business Review articles “Engineering Reverse Innovations” and “Stop the Innovation Wars” won McKinsey Awards for best article published in HBR. His HBR articles “How GE Is Disrupting Itself” and “The CEO’s Role in Business Model Reinvention” are HBR all-time top-50 bestsellers. Follow him on LinkedIn.

@vgovindarajan

Anup Srivastava holds Canada Research Chair in Accounting, Decision Making, and Capital Markets and is a full professor at Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary. In a series of HBR articles, he examines the management implications of digital disruption. He specializes in the valuation and financial reporting challenges of digital companies. Follow Anup on LinkedIn.

Luminita Enache is an associate professor of accounting at Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary, and a visiting scholar at University of California, Berkeley. She investigates financial disclosures of new-economy firms, healthcare, intangibles, and corporate governance. Follow Luminita on LinkedIn.

Read more on Business education or related topics Business and society and Innovation

What the edX Acquisition Means for the Future of Higher Education

Summary.

Partner Center