At the turn of the new year, Jeff and Michael dive into the predictions and trends set to shape the landscape of higher education in 2025. They discuss how this may be a year of reckoning for colleges and where changes will be required to make long-needed improvements. They dig in on infrastructure adjustments, reimagined degree programs, and what appears to be a new ultimatum for many struggling colleges: partner or perish. This episode made with support from The American College of Education, The Gates Foundation, and Ascendium Education Group.

Links We Share

“Which Colleges Always Lose Money?” by Robert Kelchen

“Where the Grass Is Greener” by Robert Shaw, Harvard Magazine

Chapters

0:00 - Intro
01:49 - A Year of Reckoning for Higher Ed
09:57 - The Changes Needed
16:51 - Quick Hits: Athletes as Employees, Hostile Competition, and More
26:37 - Expanding Research Outside of Academia
30:58 - Shortening Degree Programs

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On this episode, Jeff sits down with one of the authors of Job Moves: 9 Steps To Making Progress in Your Career, Future U.’s very own Michael B. Horn. The two discuss the lessons that the book, which offers research-based guidance to individuals searching for new work, holds for students and the colleges that serve them. They then dive into discussing a topic they each get a lot of questions about: what it’s like to write a book. This episode made with support from The American College of Education, The Gates Foundation, and Ascendium Education Group.

Links We Mention

Job Moves: 9 Steps for Making Progress in Your Career

Career and Technical Education for All by Michael B. Horn and Daniel Curtis, Education Next

Chapters

0:00 - Intro
02:40 - Job Moves in a Nutshell
04:02 - How Job Moves Applies to Colleges
07:17 - Balancing Skills Development Against Credentials
09:26 - Helping Students Make More Informed Choices
16:16 - Next Steps for Higher Ed
22:43 - Michael's Process for Writing a Book 
26:55 - Making the Time to Write 
29:53 - Planner or Plunger?
32:36 - Working with a Publisher
35:49 - The Hard Part that No One Talks About 
38:32 - Where to Find More on Job Moves

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More than a decade ago, a wave of research pointing to the inefficacy of remedial education was followed by a massive investment in rethinking how we prepare students who need extra support to access college. So why, after all that, does remedial ed still play such a big role on college campuses today? To help us tackle that question, we’re joined by Anne Kim, FutureEd Senior Fellow and author of a recent report on the remedial education reform movement. She discusses the history of remedial education in America and what it will take to move reform forward. Then, Jeff fields some provocative questions from Michael about who should go to college and how we can align incentives so no one profits off of unprepared students. This episode is made with support from the Gates Foundation.

Links We Share

Incomplete: The Unfinished Revolution in College Remedial Education by Anne Kim, FutureEd

Student Success 2.0, Future U. 

The New Student Ready College, Future U

Chapters

0:00 - Intro
02:49 - Remedial Education in Context
07:26 - Calls for Change
11:29 - A Wave of Reform
14:53 - Progress Stalls
16:59 - Recommendations for a Reform Rebound
19:33 - Responding to Criticisms of Remedial Ed
24:58 - A New System with More Options
31:00 - Correcting a Broken Business Model

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What does a community college in Idaho have to do with mounting economic tensions between the U.S. and China? A lot, actually. 

On this episode of Future U., Michael and Jeff dive into what the CHIPS and Science Act—the federal spending package designed to reduce the United States’ reliance on foreign manufacturers for microchips and other advanced technologies—means for a segment of American postsecondary institutions that’s often forgotten in these conversations: community colleges. They talk with nonprofit and government leaders about how the CHIPS supports the education and training of a high tech workforce. They then go deep with the team at the College of Western Idaho to get a view of how they are developing these programs in collaboration with their corporate partner, Micron. This episode is sponsored by Ascendium Education Group.

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Technology is an increasingly important element of everything that colleges do, yet it remains a distinct and separate function at too many schools. Jeff visited the Educause Conference, focused on tech in higher ed, to chat with college leaders about how they are leveraging IT on their campuses. They discuss best practices in bridging the tech-academic divide, the role of data in decision making, how IT departments can support efforts to improve the value proposition of higher ed, and more. This episode is made with support from Ascendium Education Group and the Gates Foundation.

Chapters

0:00 - Intro

5:49 - IT Then and Now

9:02 - The Disconnect Between Tech and Academic Teams 

11:56 - Using Data Strategically 

16:01 - Data-Driven v. Data-Informed Decision Making 

24:02 - Public-Private Partnerships 

31:50 - Communicating Across the Tech and Academic Sides  

34:57 - Getting Started in Online Education 

37:16 - Improving Perceptions of Higher Ed 

42:31 - The Future of Tech in Higher Ed

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Regional public universities have been hit harder than most colleges by recent enrollment decreases. On this episode, Michael and Jeff sit down with President Jonathan Koppell of Montclair State University, a regional that has bucked this trend, to learn more about their success. They dig in on lessons Koppell learned as a dean at ASU, the college’s programs for underserved students, and how the college is competing for students. This episode is made with support from Ascendium Education Group and the Gates Foundation.  

Links We Share

Beating the Odds, Bain & Co.

Chapters

00:00 - Intro
03:52 - Lessons Learned at ASU
06:52 - Attracting Students to Montclair
12:36 -Supporting Post-Secondary Attainment for Men
18:25 -How Colleges Can Win Back Engagement
24:33 -The Steps to Culture Change
27:40 - How to Fix the College President Job
32:06 - Addressing the Talk by Walking the Walk
33:58 - Aiming Above the Line
37:50 - Shifting Towards User-Centered Language
39:34 - Building Infrastructure around Differentiation
41:02 - Data and Innovation to Support Men in Higher Ed
45:49 - Providing Students with What They Need
48:53 - Coalescing Around the “Why”

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While college-going rates have increased over recent decades, completion rates have hardly budged. On this episode, Michael and Jeff sit down with one entrepreneur working to change that. Mike Larsson is the co-founder and CEO of Duet, an organization collaborating with an online university to provide on-the-ground coaching and physical space for students. They discuss the role wraparound supports play in supporting more students towards graduation, the keys to reengaging students who have stopped out, the nationwide spread of hybrid models like Duet’s, and more. This episode is made with support from Ascendium Education Philanthropy and the Gates Foundation.

Links We Share

College Reimagined by Jon Gabrieli et al.

Chapters

0:00 - Intro
02:12 - The Founding Story of Duet
08:53 - Reaching Students with “Some College No Degree”
11:23 - A Personal Trainer for College
13:17 - Duet’s Outcomes
17:07 - “The Hard Policy Answer”
21:00 - The Growth of Hybrid College
24:39 - Affordability, Flexibility, and Disruption
29:46 - Leveraging Public-Private Partnerships to Better Serve Adult Learners
33:26 - Improving the Outcomes of Community Colleges

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On this episode of the Future U. Campus Tour, Michael and Jeff sit down with leaders from Western Governors University to learn about innovations around the university, with special attention paid to those at WGU’s fast-growing School of Education. They discuss the expansion of work-based learning with President Pulsipher and Provost Hills McBeth, examine the drivers of the Ed. School’s growth with Dean Ludwig Johnson, and hear from a WGU student (and 4th grade teacher), Madelyn Hurst, on how the college’s competency-based approach is shaping her teaching. This episode is made with the support of Western Governors University.

Chapters

0:00 - Intro

03:26 - The History and Students of Western Governors University

09:48 - Drivers of WGU’s Growing Programs

16:36 - Expanding Apprenticeship-Based Degrees

20:52 - The Future of the Degree in Skills-Based World

24:10 - How AI Will Change the Work and Learning Landscape

29:47 - The Current State of K-12 Education

33:07 - How WGU has Evolved to Meet Changing Needs of Schools

36:17 - Taking the Long View

38:25 - The Downstream Effects of Competency Based Teacher Education

42:47 - The Growth of WGU’S School of Education

45:05 - How Apprenticeship is Transforming Teacher Education

47:35 - Closing Thoughts

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On this episode, Michael and Jeff riff through a range of topics. Among them: how no constituency is actually in favor of cost cutting on college campuses; whether consultants can play any productive role in higher ed; and how Disney’s succession drama holds many lessons for boards of trustees at colleges and universities. This episode is made with support from Ascendium Education Philanthropy and the Gates Foundation.

Chapters

0:00 - Introduction

3:37 - Lessons for Higher Ed from Disney Succession Drama

08:12 -  Boards of Trustees and College Rankings

13:57 - Cutting into the Cost of College

19:18 - Consultants in Higher Ed

23:51 - Professional Networks Built On-Campus

31:30 - The Leaky K-12 to College Pipeline

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The impact of college athletics is felt throughout institutions, but too often sports are considered separate from the rest of higher ed. On this episode, Michael and Jeff connect the dots between recent changes to college athletics and the campus-wide ripple effects they could have. They are joined by Matt Brown, author of the college sports newsletter, Extra Points, to chat NIL (Name, Image, Likeness), the transfer portal, and the implications of the student-athlete employment case. This episode is made with support from the Gates Foundation and Ascendium Education Group.

Links We Share

Extra Points Newsletter by Matt Brown

Chapters

(0:00) - Introduction
(05:59) - Why College Athletics Impacts All of Higher Ed
(08:16) - The NIL Case
(16:06) - Will Student-Athletes Become University Employees?
(18:36) - The General Manager Role in College Athletics
(23:10) - The Transfer Portal
(27:02) - The Implications for Lower Revenue Sports and Divisions
(33:19) - Conference Realignment
(35:51) - The Intersection of Politics and College Athletics
(40:42) - The Interdependency of Colleges
(47:20) - The Transfer Portal’s Impact on Student Success
(52:45) - Potential Ripple Effects of Student-Athlete Employment Ruling

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Much of the buzz around artificial intelligence centers on its potential to transform the college of tomorrow, but there are many schools making meaningful change with this technology today. On this episode, we go deep on the applications of AI from recruitment to instruction to supporting post-grad success. We sit down Lev Gonick, Chief Information Officer at Arizona State University, and Ashley Budd, Senior Marketing Director at Cornell University, to dig into the ways their colleges are leveraging the power of AI.  This episode is made with support from CollegeVine.

Chapters

0:00 - Intro
01:19 - A Brief Recent History of AI
05:05 - AI Partnerships at ASU
08:29 - An Admonition on Privacy
10:56 - Classroom and Administrative Applications of AI
15:46 - Prioritizing Projects
18:15 - ASU’s Approach to Tech Partnerships
22:35 - AI in the Year Ahead
25:50 - AI’s Impact on Research
30:11 - Diversifying the Project Portfolio
33:55 - AI and Stanford’s Conference Decision
35:27 - AI’s Applications in Recruitment and Admissions
44:06 - Standardizing the Transcript
48:51 - The AI Arms Race
54:20 - Transactional or Transformational?

Links We Mention

AI-powered educational experiences underway at ASU 

Four Singularities for Research by Ethan Mollick 

Reading Ease Calculator created by Todd Rogers and Jessica Lasky-Fink, authors of Writing for Busy Readers

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