AIU is striving to regain the significance of the concept of education, which is rooted into the Latin "educare", meaning "to pull out", breaking loose from the paradigm of most XXIst century universities with their focus on "digging and placing information" into students' heads rather than teaching them to think.
For AIU, the generation of "clones" that traditional universities are spreading throughout the real world is one of the most salient reasons for today's ills. In fact, students trained at those educational institutions never feel a desire to "change the world" or the current status quo; instead, they adjust to the environment, believe everything is fine, and are proud of it all.
In a world where knowledge and mostly information expire just like milk, we must reinvent university as a whole in which each student, as the key player, is UNIQUE within an intertwined environment.
This century's university must generate new knowledge bits although this may entail its separation from both the administrative bureaucracy and the faculty that evolve there as well.
It is important to direct the spotlight on the publicity most universities orchestrate about the hugeness of their campus, their libraries (many of which are quite obsolete), and more commonly their accreditation and/or academic standing, What this means is, there has been no change whatsoever despite the fact that the current system is not working.
AIU thinks that a university should be increasingly integrated into the "real world", society, the economy, and the holistic human being. As such, it should concentrate on its ultimate goal, which is the student, and get him/her deeply immersed into a daily praxis of paradigm shifts, along with the Internet and research, all these being presently accessible only to a small minority of the world community.
AIU students must accomplish their self-learning mission while conceptualizing it as the core of daily life values through the type of experiences that lead to a human being's progress when information is converted into education.
The entire AIU family must think of the university as a setting that values diversity and talent in a way that trains mankind not only for the present but above all for a future that calls everyday for professionals who empower themselves in academic and professional areas highly in demand in our modern society.
We shall not forget that, at AIU, students are responsible for discovering their own talents and potential, which they must auto-develop in such a way that the whole finish product opens up as a flower that blossoms every year more openly.
AIU students must show interest in topics not immediately related to their careers. This is the trend that allows for more creativity that can be used to enhance different kinds of solutions with a trade mark of effectiveness and efficiency, all this with a standing better than the competition's, and with the ultimate goal that love of the job prevails over thirst for power.
The AIU stance is against the idea of the campus as a getaway from day-to-day pressure since we believe reality is the best potential-enhancer ever; one truly learns through thinking, brainstorming ideas, which leads to new solutions, and ultimately the rebirth of a human being fully integrated in a sustainable world environment. Self-learning is actualized more from within than a top-down vantage point, that is to say, to influence instead of requesting, ideas more than power. We need to create a society where solidarity, culture, life, not political or economic rationalism and more than techno structures, are prioritized. In short, the characteristics of AIU students and alumni remain independence, creativity, self-confidence, and ability to take risk towards new endeavors. This is about people's worth based not on what they know but on what they do with what they know.
AIU believes that the life that is worth living is the one built upon an idea that blossoms. Yet, unfortunately, we are used to receiving everything from the higher ups. This results from a world vision that clings on the hierarchy-based bureaucracy and mercantilism still being the driving force behind all our undertakings. Ultimately, we believe less and less in the common freedom of people.
We must bring more to life, other than what we craft and what happens, sports, joyfulness, festive mood, including what is amusing. Ortega and Gaset called it "desire of adventure."
Still, how do people assimilate this desire of adventure at AIU? Well, it is with more reading of online resources. Through applications from reading of online resources in work, social, and family settings, which is the direction in which we are heading; reflecting deeply and meditating upon the outcomes with constant interaction and practical work. All this is a giant step towards the creation of new pragmatic ideologies as the foundation of human research and evolution.
For us, humanities, philosophy, and art must be naturally and constantly embedded into our intellectual, ethical, and moral formation; these entail the virtues that guarantee our sense of togetherness and help us transcend what is ephemeral in technology: all this is rooted into the idea that, according to a significant body of research, 90% of problems organizations must deal with, are human in nature.
Let us remember that people, and not the professions, are the true ultimate goal of education. It is critical for our culture to be embarked into this logical trend that professional endeavors in this century are experimenting a paradigm shift focusing way beyond the simple duties of a job. In other words, success in a position is measured up with more than the parameters of the job description and the salary associated with it. For AIU, such evaluation of performance is positive through such qualities and entities as the ability to act, self-concept, character development, independence, social responsibility, and the ability to generate jobs. Other criteria that must be considered are the percentage of people who make a living out of the results of the professional's performance, an economic contribution to the world community, intellectual production, solidarity with others, etc.
It is becoming increasingly essential to develop a sense of self-sufficiency so that progress becomes contingent upon a job so that, ultimately, we gain some mental flexibility and use it to foster a certain entrepreneurial and professional mindset in our environment.
It is the hope of AIU that its student body develop long term goals not only for its organizational spirit but also for its human endeavors.
AIU Service
AIU offers educational opportunities in the USA to adults from around the world so that they can better themselves using their own potential to manage their personal, global cultural development. This is actualized through the evaluation of their credentials towards a bachelor's, a Master's and/or a Doctorate degree, and this also implies a capability for sustainable results-based performance. The foundational axis of such a philosophy lies upon self-actualized knowledge and information, with no room for obsoleteness, which is embedded into a DISTANCE LEARNING SYSTEM based on ANDRAGOGY and OMNIOLOGY.
The ultimate goal of this paradigm is to empower learners and help them take advantage of the enormous array of resources from the world environment in order to eliminate the current continuum of poverty and limitations. To this end, depending on the circumstances, students are able to convert their past into a self-propelled growth module constantly on the move, away from the accredited, traditional systems that foster limitations and caducity.
This will become a crude reality with respect for, and practice of, human and community rights through experiences, investigations, practicum work, and/or examinations, according to an independent student's individual idiosyncrasy at AIU. Everything takes place in a setting that fosters diversity with more than 16 millions full texts, +300,000 ebooks, and +1 billion bibliographic references in more than 400 languages; while advisors and consultants with doctorate degrees and specializations in Human Development monitor learning processes; in addition to a worldwide web of colleagues and associations in different academic areas; so that they can reach together the satisfaction and the progress of humanity with peace and harmony.
