The Key with Inside Higher Ed

In this episode of Voices of Student Success, Inside Higher Ed's podcast series exploring what really shapes students' experiences, Christa Acampora, dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Virginia, joins IHE student success reporter Joshua Bay. As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly embedded in higher education and the workforce, colleges and universities are grappling with how to prepare students for a future in which the skills and knowledge they need to succeed are becoming more difficult to predict. While institutions work to equip students with the technical skills they need to navigate emerging technologies, questions remain about how administrators can also cultivate the critical thinking, creativity and human judgment that remain central to a college education. They discuss how colleges can navigate the rise of AI while supporting students’ intellectual, personal and professional development.

Universities and colleges own the discoveries they make with federal research funding thanks to the Bayh-Dole Act. Since it passed in 1980, commercialized innovations from federally funded research have contributed trillions of dollars to the U.S. economy, according to the Bayh-Dole Coalition. Some of the discoveries made possible by the Bayh-Dole act include Google, tests for cervical cancer, lithium car battery recycling and high-definition video and audio. In this episode of The Key, IHE’s editor in chief Sara Custer speaks with Joe Allen, the executive director of the Bayh-Dole coalition, to understand the origins of the legislation and how it could be upended by changes to policies governing research funding.

In this episode of Voices of Student Success, Inside Higher Ed's podcast series exploring what really shapes students' experiences, Félix Matos Rodríguez, chancellor of the City University of New York, joins IHE student success reporter Joshua Bay. As students and families increasingly question the value of a college education amid an uncertain job market, institutions are placing greater emphasis on career readiness and how they can better prepare students to succeed in the workforce. They discuss how colleges can make career readiness a more integral part of the student experience, what CUNY hopes to accomplish through its recent expansion of CUNY Beyond, and how higher education can better prepare students for a rapidly changing workforce as well as support their long-term success.

In this episode of Voices of Student Success, Inside Higher Ed's podcast series exploring what really shapes students' experiences, Alexis Redding, a developmental psychologist and professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, joins IHE student success reporter Joshua Bay. Colleges have devoted growing attention and resources to student well-being in recent years, but supporting mental health goes far beyond what happens inside a counseling center. Students’ well-being can be shaped by nearly every part of the college experience—from the expectations they bring with them to campus and the academic, financial and social pressures they encounter to how they navigate setbacks, uncertainty and the transition into adulthood. They unpack what colleges may still misunderstand about student mental health, how the broader college experience shapes students’ well-being, where normal stress and struggle fit into the conversation, and what it would look like for institutions to build a culture of care that supports students throughout college and beyond.

In their new book, Faculties: A Dialogue on Inciting Constructive Change in Destructive Times (Duke University Press) Cathy Davidson, founder of the Futures Initiative at the CUNY Graduate Center, and Jody Greene, founding director of the Teaching and Learning Center at UC Santa Cruz, call on faculty to get involved in the decisions shaping their institutions' futures. They join Inside Higher Ed editor in chief Sara Custer to talk about the book, which they describe as part love letter, part self-help guide. They dig into why faculty have lost ground in institutional leadership and how the rift between academics and administrators got so wide. Cathy and Jody share how faculty should respond to claims that they're brainwashing students with leftist ideology, and how to get informed about the challenges facing the sector. (Hint: Start with Inside Higher Ed every morning.)  

In this episode of Voices of Student Success, Inside Higher Ed's podcast series exploring what really shapes students' experiences, Bryan Ashton, chief strategy and growth officer at Trellis and head of Trellis Strategies, joins IHE student success reporter Joshua Bay. Adult learners, working students, student parents, transfer students and first-generation students are often grouped under the broad umbrella of “nontraditional” students. While their experiences differ, they also highlight the various ways higher education is, or isn’t, designed around the realities of students’ lives. Many of these students are navigating similar pressures: balancing college with work and family responsibilities, managing financial challenges and figuring out systems that weren’t necessarily built with them in mind. And as these experiences become increasingly common across higher education, they raise a bigger question: If so-called nontraditional students reflect the reality of today’s college population, does it still make sense to call them nontraditional?

The Department of Education in August released its accreditation reform for public comment. If finalized, the new rules could expand accreditors’ responsibilities  to include policing First Amendment compliance and research misconduct. They could also force many agencies to set more specific standards for student achievement and hiring and to rethink their decades-old peer-review model. In this episode, Inside Higher Ed editor in chief Sara Custer speaks with Maria Toyoda, president and CEO of the WASC Senior College and University Commission, about the details of the department’s proposal, how WASC is preparing for the changes and what the new rules signal for the relationship between the federal government, states and accreditors.

In this episode of Voices of Student Success, Inside Higher Ed's podcast series exploring what really shapes students' experiences, Hope Pacheco, associate dean of students and executive director of the Gator Resource Center at the University of Houston–Downtown, joins IHE student success reporter Joshua Bay. Being the first in your family to attend college can mean entering an unfamiliar system without the same knowledge or networks some of your peers may have—from knowing where to turn for help to navigating financial aid, academics and the unwritten rules of college. But first-generation students also bring their own experiences, strengths and support systems with them. So what do colleges still misunderstand about first-gen students—and what actually helps them feel like they belong and ultimately earn a degree? They unpack what first-generation students experience when they arrive on campus, who they turn to when they need help and what colleges can do to make sure students don’t have to figure it all out on their own.

Paul LeBlanc is an innovative change maker in higher ed who led Southern New Hampshire University’s transformation from a small regional institution with a couple thousand students to one of the largest nonprofit providers of online higher education in the country.  In his latest book Reclaiming Purpose: The University in an AI World he presents a vision of higher education that shifts from knowledge transfer to teaching students how to develop the human skills that will set them apart from artificial intelligence. In this conversation with Inside Higher Ed editor in chief Sara Custer, LeBlanc explains what his prediction could mean for faculty and institutional leaders and encourages higher ed to take a leading role in ethical AI design.

In this episode of Voices of Student Success, Inside Higher Ed's podcast series exploring what really shapes students' experiences, Josh Wyner, executive director of the College Excellence Program at the Aspen Institute, and John Fink, senior research associate and program lead at the Community College Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University, joins IHE student success reporter Joshua Bay. Millions of students begin their education at community colleges with plans to eventually earn a bachelor’s degree, but moving from one institution to another can mean navigating confusing requirements, losing credits and figuring out systems that don’t always work together. So why is transfer still so difficult despite years of reform efforts, and what would it take to make the process truly seamless for students? They unpack where transfer students encounter the biggest barriers and what institutions can do to create avenues that help more community college students earn a bachelor’s degree.