Abstract

Academic centers and institutes occupy a compelling yet tenuous position in higher education. They are flexible and boundary-spanning and are considered more able to reach beyond campus limits to engage directly with industry, community, and technology for the purpose of advancing innovation. Occupying a uniquely dynamic place in the organization of higher education institutions today are centers and institutes for innovation, creativity, and design. This qualitative interview-based research study examines the organizational position of centers for design thinking and innovation throughout US higher education and explores how position and reporting lines create opportunities and limits to fulfilling the ambitions of their establishment. Analysis finds that centers for design, innovation, and creativity occupy five main positions within university structures, including being independent, college-based, reporting to the President, reporting to the Provost, and reporting to a team of external advisors. Advantages and limitations described by center leaders are organized around a central tension between the autonomy and flexibility afforded by their organizational fit and the anomaly the center represents within traditional structures of higher education. Balancing this central tension are the opportunities and constraints of a center’s ability to offer academic credit and the proximity its position has to decision-making power on campus. Findings from this study suggest that institutions aiming to establish new centers for design, innovation, and creativity should ensure that centers as positioned to be able to offer academic credit, and that center leaders should consider institutional culture and research classification to ensure academic credibility. Insights from the study also recommend that new organizational structures be developed to enable the kind of innovative learning experiences promised by these centers.