Until its quasquicentennial in 2016, students applied for admission to Stanford around the age of 17, were admitted and conducted their studies for four years from ages 18 – 22. They then graduated and became alumni. Some portion would return a few years later to pursue a graduate degree.

That, strangely enough, was it.

Then, Stanford fully reinvented itself as the first Open Loop University.

Views began to change about the role of higher education over an individual’s life course. The perspective that the university could effectively serve its original mission while continuing to narrowly define the time in one’s life when learning would happen was challenged. Examples of new models started emerging, such as Stanford’s Distinguished Careers Institute – focused exclusively on providing access to Stanford offerings for older adults who had already accomplished at least one significant phase in their professional lives.

The Dean of Admissions conducted an experiment in 2015 to recruit 10 percent of an incoming class using a special “age-blind” process. The results started to