Yeah! Back to work again! Back to work for us! Joe...

The last two weeks the blog has focused on my health issues. It is not that I haven’t been working either at home or a few hours a day in the office, but it has not been the focus of my greatest attention. I am tired of thinking about my health issues. You are probably tired of reading about them. So, I will say I am seeing gradual progress and I am optimistic about the future. Having said that, I am not going to write about my health again unless there is a significant development.

So then, what will I write about? Today I think I’ll provide an update of the strategic changes that are going on at work. This is definitely a work in process and there is the occasional step back after a couple of steps forward. I will also say these changes have come through trying to reach consensus among the key players. I don’t think we have reached a true consensus, but we are close on some points. I used to work with someone who was fond of saying, “Here we stand with our feet firmly in the air.” That’s about where we are.

At the center of the uncertainty is the role of Modi Academic International Institute (MAII). Stratford University would like nothing better than for MAII to disappear. The joint venture organization has to exist but Stratford would like to have all public communication only include Stratford University. The Modi family has always been uncomfortable with that but it is only in the past few weeks that a compromise has emerged that seems to satisfy both partners.

In order to better tie all the Modi educational efforts together, MAII will be renamed as KK Modi International Institute (KKMII) in order to make it easier to co-brand/co advertise with KK Modi University, the name of the Indian University we are building in Chhattisgarh. This will not just be a name change. Although we will pursue becoming a proper Indian University ourselves, we will offer recognized Indian diplomas, advanced diplomas, and post graduate programs – roughly the equivalent of Associates, Bachelor’s, and Master’s degrees.  Students will be able to receive both our diplomas and Stratford University degrees with only some additional work.

This gives KKMII a legitimate reason for existence and for public communication. We are expanding that by articulating with other Universities than Stratford. There are many programs of interest that Stratford does not offer. Using the same KKMII structure we will offer joint programs in other disciplines and from other countries. In this way KKMII will become a vehicle for many jointly offered/articulated programs from across the globe. When combined with KK Modi University and the ability to thus also offer Indian degrees not just diplomas and there is a viable strategy.

Well, there are more initiatives I could cite but it may be that the details of what we are doing is a little too inside baseball for more than a couple of the blog’s readers. I just wanted to let you know there is life here and some interesting professional jujitsu to bring it all together.

Have a good week. I am going to.

  

Namaste