Welcome to DGREE.
Now is the time to rethink higher education and create a new model for learning.

There is a great need to rethink how education is delivered throughout one's lifetime. We believe in creating a student-centric initiative for a new ecosystem around higher education that blends the best of Silicon Valley, entrepreneurial thinking and higher education. But changing higher education in America must first begin with changing the conversation we are having about it. Now is the time to initiate dialogue, ideation and action around rethinking the policies, infrastructure and innovations needed to reinvent it and LENS is committed to promoting this dialogue. Developed in partnership with the Lumina™ Foundation, LENS conceived of DGREE—a new initiative for higher education that brings together the shared thinking of business leaders, venture capitalists, education foundations, and university leaders and accreditors to focus on student-centric learning in a sustainable educational ecosystem. D stands for Dynamic. Gree is the Scottish word for master. Dynamic + Mastery = DGREE.

Our goal is to explore the critical requirements for opening up higher education to new models. What does it take to build new technology platforms? What business processes need to be changed? What policy barriers can be cleared away to open up new, high quality higher education options? The ultimate goal is to get 60% of our adults to acquire degrees, meeting the needs of the new GI Bill and re-educating a population for next-economy jobs. Imagine a world where higher education doesn't end with a diploma, but starts at 18 and continues through life.

LENS mission statement: Be the best at making large scale happen, use well-placed investment to inspire and implement solutions to make business, people, and the planet more robust and resilient, and use our talents to make everyone an innovator.