Despite some success in American Higher Ed's efforts to increase accessibility to degrees and credentials, completion rates continue to disappoint. With over 40 million Americans in the "some college no degree” population, it's clear that the focus must now shift to supporting higher ed students  - including adult learners - throughout their journey. Courtney Brown, vice president of Impact and Planning at Lumina Foundation, joins us to explore strategies for addressing this issue and the necessary changes institutions and policymakers need to make to reverse this trend ..read more

In this bonus episode, we turn the tables. Ben Wildavsky discusses his new book, The Career Arts: Making the Most of College, Credentials and Connections. He makes the case for why degrees still matter, despite the popular rhetoric calling for skills-based hiring. Goldie Blumenstyk, a veteran reporter for The Chronicle of Higher Education, guest hosts this episode.   Higher Ed Spotlight is sponsored by Chegg’s Center for Digital Learning and aims to explore the future of higher education. It is produced by Antica Productions ..read more

Battles over free speech and the boundaries of civility are roiling college campuses. Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway sees these as high stakes issues connected to student learning and their engagement with citizenship and democracy. He and a group of 12 other college leaders are reiterating the importance of free speech, respectful debate, and civility at their institutions.   Higher Ed Spotlight is sponsored by Chegg’s Center for Digital Learning and aims to explore the future of higher education. It is produced by Antica Productions ..read more

Sally Kornbluth is the new president of MIT - probably the most prestigious STEM school around. But she also stands up for the arts and the humanities and champions their integration within the sciences. Sally believes that graduating students with great technical skills isn’t enough in today’s demanding job market, nor will rigid academic silos help us face our most pressing challenges, like climate change.    Higher Ed Spotlight is sponsored by Chegg’s Center for Digital Learning and aims to explore the future of higher education. It is produced by Antica Productions ..read more

The Biden administration recently urged 16 governors to rectify their state’s chronic underfunding of Historically Black Colleges and Universities - HBCUs. That underfunding reached hundreds of millions to, in some cases, billions of dollars. Darrick Hamilton is an Economics Professor and founding director of The New School’s Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy. He argues for the proper funding of HBCUs, especially in light of the Supreme Court’s decision to ban affirmative action in college admissions. In fact, he contends that HBCUs have done so much with so little, that a debt is ..read more

Peter Norvig is a big deal in AI. He’s currently at Stanford's Human-Centered AI Institute. But he built his reputation mainly at Google, where he helped shape the most powerful and widely used search engine today. What does an AI expert have to say about higher education’s adoption of new technologies, the dangers of AI-assisted cheating, and the bigger question of academia’s purpose?   Higher Ed Spotlight is sponsored by Chegg’s Center for Digital Learning and aims to explore the future of higher education. It is produced by Antica Productions ..read more

Arizona State University President Michael Crow is known as an education innovator and early tech adopter. Most recently, his university turned to Hollywood to revamp its intro biology labs into a full VR experience. How does he navigate the concerns and often reluctance of higher ed to innovate around learning and tech?    Higher Ed Spotlight is sponsored by Chegg’s Center for Digital Learning and aims to explore the future of higher education. It is produced by Antica Productions ..read more

Higher education is in trouble. A declining birthrate means fewer young people applying to college. But what if we did more to cater to older students and not just recent high school grads? Eloy Ortiz Oakley, the President of College Futures Foundation and former head of the California Community Colleges system, has been advocating for higher ed to pay attention to the needs of adult learners for decades now. Are they the answer to the enrollment cliff?     Higher Ed Spotlight is sponsored by Chegg’s Center for Digital Learning and aims to explore the future of higher education ..read more

As colleges and universities continue to debate the usefulness of admissions tests like the SAT, we talk to FairTest’s Akil Bello. He argues that admissions tests aren’t good indicators of student success and that the SAT has come to mean way more than it should within and outside of the walls of academia.   Higher Ed Spotlight is sponsored by Chegg’s Center for Digital Learning and aims to explore the future of higher education. It is produced by Antica Productions ..read more

Rachel Lipson is the co-editor of the new book “America’s Hidden Economic Engines: How Community Colleges Can Drive Shared Prosperity.” She shares what the five community colleges profiled in the book are getting right and how they’re fulfilling the institution’s promise of community economic growth and student career advancement. Higher Ed Spotlight is sponsored by Chegg’s Center for Digital Learning and aims to explore the future of higher education. It is produced by Antica Productions ..read more