The Key with Inside Higher Ed

“Learning loss” – the idea that students failed to stay on their previous trajectory – has been much discussed in K-12 education during the pandemic. We hear far less about it in higher education, even though students and faculty members alike consistently say they believe students have learned less in the last year than they usually do. In this week’s episode of The Key, we discuss what colleges...

Students have offered mixed assessments of their learning experiences during the pandemic year. Many of them have complained about the lack of interaction with peers and professors in virtual environments, but appreciated the flexibility they gained in when and how they learned. With many colleges planning a significant if not full return to their physical campuses this fall, what will students be...

Many college students and professors will return to their physical campuses this fall, and it’s tempting to think things will return to “normal” when they do. But given the events of the past 15 months, what happens in the classroom come September is likely to be anything but normal. In this week’s episode of The Key, Mays Imad, professor of pathophysiology and biomedical ethics and coordinator of...

Listening to alternative points of view isn’t a particularly favored activity in many corners of society these days. But it remains one of the best ways – perhaps one of the only ways – of bridging the many divides (racial, economic, cultural) currently afflicting many aspects of our world. So argues Ronald A. Crutcher, president of the University of Richmond and author of I Had No Idea You Were B...

What skills, knowledge and abilities do students develop as they navigate through college? How do students themselves know, and how do institutions arm their graduates to show prospective employers what they know and can do? This week’s episode explores an effort to iterate beyond the academic transcript, which has historically been the main tool available to students, institutions and employers a...

The COVID-19 pandemic forced almost every college or university to make do without a physical campus at some point in the last 15 months. But many students and employees yearned to return, and most institutions anticipate resuming at least quasi-normal in-person operations this fall. But changes in how students learn and employees work will almost certainly compel most colleges and universities to...

Students and state and federal governments alike are asking increasingly hard questions about the return on their investment in postsecondary education, as tuitions and debt grow.   In this episode of The Key, which is sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, three experts with a diverse set of perspectives discuss the government role in ensuring value from academic institutions and progr...

Most Americans say they pursue a degree or other credential after high school to improve their job or career prospects. So many efforts to judge the value of a college credential have focused exclusively on graduates’ income. A new report from the Postsecondary Value Commission expands that definition, considering other, longer-term economic measures (such as economic mobility and wealth) and reco...

Rapid growth in college debt and families’ out-of-pocket expenditures on higher education, along with complaints from employers about the preparedness of the people they hire, have intensified questioning about the value of postsecondary degrees and credentials. This week’s episode of The Key explores a report from a high-powered group of policy makers, college leaders, researchers and others that...

Congress is considering expanding use of the federal government’s main postsecondary grant program to cover enrollment in training programs as short as eight weeks. Supporters – community college leaders, corporations and advocates for a more skilled workforce – believe the change is essential to serve tens of millions of Americans who don’t have the money or time for degree and other longer-term...

Getting a job or improving career success is a primary reason why many students pursue a postsecondary degree or other credential. So it’s logical to assess the performance of colleges and universities – at least partially – by how their students fare after they leave. This week’s episode of The Key examines a new way of judging colleges and universities based on how quickly their students recoup...

Merger is something of a dirty word in higher education, given that most of them are takeovers in which one college usually disappears. But as financial, demographic and other changes force many colleges to consider significant changes in how they operate, a cross-institutional collaboration of one sort or another – be it sharing of back-office operations, cooperation on academic programs or a mer...

Adult students are key to meeting the postsecondary attainment goals in many states and the U.S., given the projected enrollment declines in traditional college-age Americans. Yet adults remain underrepresented in higher education, and they’ve been disproportionately hurt by the pandemic and ensuring recession.   This episode of The Key explores the landscape of current and prospective adult learn...

Use of free, openly licensed textbooks and other curricular materials have been on the rise amid growing concerns about college affordability. But uptake stalled last year as professors and students struggled with the transition to digital learning and the tumult of their lives, a new annual report on usage of OER finds. This week’s episode of The Key examines the state of open educational resourc...

Inequality in digital access is not a new problem in higher education – but COVID-19 has spotlighted just how much some students struggle to stay connected to their colleges and universities because they lack adequate technology, sufficient internet access or safe, quiet places to study. This week’s episode of The Key delves into topics such as digital inequity, broadband access for online educati...

This episode explores Inside Higher Ed's news hub featuring student polling data, news and analysis to ensure that the perspective of college students is heard on the issues that matter in higher education. Student Voice's editor, Melissa Ezarik, discusses the goals of the new collaboration between Inside Higher Ed, College Pulse and Kaplan, and shares the findings of the first survey, which exami...

Many colleges are seeing increases in reports of academic misconduct. In this episode, North Carolina State University’s Bradley Davis discusses a nearly three-fold increase in academic violations, what’s causing it, and how university officials are responding to it. And two national experts, David Rettinger and Kate McConnell, explore steps faculty members and administrators can take both to mini...

Do professors believe their virtual teaching improved with more time to prepare? Did institutions step up their training and support for instructors? And did some students fare better than others in the online and blended classroom? This week’s episode explores those questions with Kristen Fox of Tyton Partners and Jessica Rowland Williams of Every Learner Everywhere – with answers both heartening...

This episode features Doug Shapiro, executive director of the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, and Juana Sánchez, senior associate on the HCM Strategists postsecondary team. We analyze the national data on postsecondary enrollment, with a focus on the particularly damaging impact the pandemic and the recession have had on the most vulnerable students – those from underrepresented mi...

This episode looks back at 2020 and the podcast's eight months of discussions about the impact of the pandemic on higher education and vulnerable college students. Erin Hennessy , a vice president at TVP Communications, joined us to talk about what we learned during this unprecedented year. The episode also features portions of interviews from the previous 34 episodes, including discussions about...

This episode features leaders from Purdue Global University and Broward College in Florida, two institutions that are focused on offering credentials that work for under-served student groups, including students who hold down jobs while pursuing credentials. Gregory Adam Haile , Broward's president, talked about the college's work to add short-term credentials that are stackable and feature embedd...

Many colleges and universities have partnered with ed tech companies to help expand their online offerings. This episode looks at two different approaches to partnering online. We spoke with Andrew Clark , the founder, president and CEO of Zovio, a publicly traded education technology services company that just closed on the sale of its online Ashford University to the University of Arizona. Clark...

Many colleges and universities wrapped up their fall terms before Thanksgiving. We spoke with officials from two institutions -- Paul Quinn College and the University of Notre Dame -- about their efforts to protect the health and wellbeing of students this fall. Michael Sorrell , Paul Quinn's president, talked about how the work college sought to stay connected with students during an online term....

Joseph I. Castro , Fresno State's president, will become chancellor of the California State University System in January. The system is one of the nation's largest , enrolling roughly 500,000 students across 23 campuses. Castro talked about his top priorities as he steps into the new role, including to continue Cal State's push to improve student completion rates while cutting achievement gaps. He...

This year has been filled with challenges for college athletics, as programs wrestle with safety protocols, COVID-19 outbreaks, game cancellations and the elimination of some team sports amid widespread financial pain. To help get a handle on where things stand -- and where they're headed -- we spoke with Amy Privette Perko , CEO of the Knight Commission, a nonprofit organization of college leader...