signals in higher ed

What did eleven university leaders believe about AI a year ago that they no longer believe? At Technica 2026 in College Park, Maryland, Darin Francis of Harbinger Lane and Amanda D'Avria of Major League Hacking brought together vice presidents, deans, department chairs, a CIO and a chief AI officer from universities across Maryland, Virginia and DC for a roundtable on AI Across the Institution: Wh...

What does it take to raise first-year retention from 57% to 75% in just a few years? Dr. James Stewart is Associate Vice President of Enrollment Services and co-divisional leader for enrollment management and student affairs at Coppin State University, Maryland's most affordable four-year public institution and a historically Black university in West Baltimore. Most of Coppin's students are first-...

What does it take to raise first-year retention from 57% to 75% in just a few years? Dr. James Stewart is Associate Vice President of Enrollment Services and co-divisional leader for enrollment management and student affairs at Coppin State University, Maryland's most affordable four-year public institution and a historically Black university in West Baltimore. Most of Coppin's students are first-...

en an edtech pilot fails, who's really to blame? On this episode of signals in higher ed, part of our Hard Truths for Higher Ed series, Harbinger Lane CEO Darin Francis talks with Jay Bozman, an investor with Education Innovation Ventures at ECMC Foundation. Jay has seen higher ed from nearly every side: on campus at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, in state policy at the Tennessee Higher Edu...

When an edtech pilot fails, who's really to blame? On this episode of signals in higher ed, part of our Hard Truths for Higher Ed series, Harbinger Lane CEO Darin Francis talks with Jay Bozman, an investor with Education Innovation Ventures at ECMC Foundation. Jay has seen higher ed from nearly every side: on campus at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, in state policy at the Tennessee Higher E...

What if the reason higher ed buyers don’t buy has nothing to do with your pitch? On this episode of signals in higher ed, Harbinger Lane CEO Darin Francis talks with Rob Snyder, author of The Power of Pull. Rob is a Harvard Innovation Labs fellow and a former McKinsey consultant who has founded several companies. His sales framework is the foundation of EIF Catalyst, the accelerator run by ECMC’s...

What if the reason higher ed buyers don’t buy has nothing to do with your pitch? On this episode of signals in higher ed, Harbinger Lane CEO Darin Francis talks with Rob Snyder, author of The Power of Pull. Rob is a Harvard Innovation Labs fellow and a former McKinsey consultant who has founded several companies. His sales framework is the foundation of EIF Catalyst, the accelerator run by ECMC’s...

On this latest episode of Signals in Higher Ed, Phil Hill, founder of Phil Hill and Associates and publisher of On EdTech, joins Darin Francis, CEO of Harbinger Lane, to examine a hard truth facing higher education: AI did not create the crisis around academic integrity, assessment, and student learning. Instead, it is exposing weaknesses in a system that has increasingly prioritized credentials,...

In this episode of Signals in Higher Ed , Darin Francis sits down with Brandee Popaden-Smith, Senior Director in University College at Arizona State University, to explore a shift in how higher education thinks about student success: moving from time to completion to time to value. For Brandee, the question is no longer simply whether students eventually earn a degree, but whether they can recogni...

In this latest episode of Signals in Higher Ed , host Darin Francis, CEO of Harbinger Lane, sits down with Daryl Graham, Senior Vice President of HBCU and Engagement at Strada Education Foundation, to examine what higher education can learn from historically Black colleges and universities about student success, belonging, leadership development, and career preparation. Graham shares the story beh...

Innovation in EdTech is increasingly coming from focused, nimble companies rather than the industry’s largest incumbents. In this episode of Signals in Higher Ed , Harbinger Lane CEO Darin Francis sits down with Mark Miller, Managing Partner at Good Harbor Partners, to explore why smaller education companies are often better positioned to identify specific problems, work closely with institutions,...

Morgan State University has launched Maryland’s first Bachelor of Science in Artificial Intelligence at a public university, and it did so on a timeline that would be nearly unthinkable for most new academic programs. In this episode of Signals in Higher Ed , host Darren Francis speaks with Dr. Paul Wang, Chair of Computer Science at Morgan State University, about how years of quietly transforming...

What if the most valuable curriculum for working adults already exists inside the organizations where they work? In this episode of Signals in Higher Ed , Darin Francis sits down with Andrew Salmon, co-founder of Intangled Learning, to explore the idea of work generated learning, an approach that treats the practices, decisions, relationships, and challenges inside an organization as the foundatio...

Higher education is under growing pressure to prove that a degree translates into meaningful career outcomes. Micro-credentials may be one way institutions can close that gap, but scaling them across entire university systems requires much more than simply giving students access to another online course. In this episode of Signals in Higher Ed , Darin Francis sits down with Dr. Kelvin Bentley, Dir...

As artificial intelligence becomes more accessible across higher education, Dr. Ngoc Cindy Pham argues that access alone should not be the goal. The more important question is whether students know how to use AI to solve real problems, exercise judgment, defend their decisions, and translate new technology into professional opportunities. In this episode of Signals in Higher Ed , Darin Francis spe...

The first year of college matters, but the experiences that shape student success extend far beyond a single academic year. In this panel discussion, host Darin Francis is joined by Brandee Popaden-Smith of ASU University College, Dr. T. Chase Hagood of the University of Utah, and Dr. Nicole Crevar of Podium Education to explore how institutions can create stronger pathways from students’ earliest...

For years, the decision to launch a new online program rested largely on instinct and institutional appetite. But as competition intensifies and budgets tighten, universities can no longer afford to guess. The programs that succeed are increasingly the ones backed by rigorous market analysis, conservative enrollment modeling, and a clear-eyed view of the costs involved. So when a department wants...

As artificial intelligence continues reshaping the workforce, higher education faces growing pressure to demonstrate its value beyond content mastery. According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report, employers expect 39% of workers’ core skills to change or become outdated by 2030, while 69% identify analytical thinking as the most essential workforce skill. As a result, employers ar...

Engineering has transformed nearly every part of modern life, from the phones in our pockets to the systems powering global industry. But the way engineers are educated has often moved far more slowly than the profession itself. Employers are asking for graduates who can navigate ambiguity, communicate across teams, and contribute meaningfully from the start. At the same time, AI is making it hard...

What students need from higher education is becoming harder to pin down than it once was. As higher education faces mounting pressure—from student disengagement to the rapid rise of artificial intelligence—institutions are being forced to rethink not just what students learn, but who they become. New research and industry signals suggest that technical knowledge alone is no longer enough; employer...

The traditional pathway from college to career is starting to break down—and both universities and employers are feeling the strain. Higher education is under mounting pressure to prove career outcomes as employers question graduate readiness and internships decline. In fact, many institutions are reporting shrinking internship pipelines even as employers continue to prioritize prior experience—cr...