The Key with Inside Higher Ed

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...

Some experts think competency-based learning could get a boost amid the pandemic, in part because of the flexibility CBE programs offer to students. To get the lay of the land, we spoke with Charla Long , executive director of the Competency-Based Education Network (C-BEN), a national consortium of colleges and systems. Long talked about the outlook for CBE and what might take it to the next level...

A growing body of evidence finds high student anxiety and uncertainty about what comes after college. To get a better sense of how students are feeling, we spoke with Livia and Julia Morris, recent UC Davis grads who conducted a survey of college students around the country. The survey featured questions about career exploration. We also spoke with Kai Drekmeier, the founder and chief development...

Student transfer is down this fall, with new data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center showing the anticipated influx of students transferring to community colleges from four-year institutions didn't happen. To make sense of these numbers, we spoke Iris Palmer , a senior advisor for higher education and workforce with the education policy program at New America. Palmer talked ab...

As higher education faces a potential exodus of students -- particularly lower-income students who attend community colleges -- what role could creative financing play in helping students bridge the gap from college to a career? Chris Keaveney thinks Meritize can be part of solution. The private lender focuses on reducing risk and friction for students, colleges and employers. Keaveney, the founde...

A growing body of research has shown that anxiety and mental health issues have become primary concerns for college students. To get a leadership perspective on this challenge, we spoke with Elfred Anthony Pinkard , the president of Wilberforce University, who talked about how his students have been coping with the nation's racial reckoning as well as the pandemic. We also spoke with Dr. Alan Denn...

Amid fears about a possible exodus of lower-income students from postsecondary education, and community colleges in particular, what can policymakers do to help vulnerable students stay on track? For answers, we spoke with Morna Foy , president of the Wisconsin Technical College System. Foy spoke about barriers faced by students across the system and why she and other two-year college leaders want...

The pandemic has brought new urgency to the creation of a learner record system, which could help students more smoothly transfer between colleges and find a job. We spoke with Scott Cheney , the CEO of Credential Engine, to hear about the potential for such a system, as well as how his organization is seeking to bring transparency to credentials while creating a marketplace for them. Also feature...

The College of Health Care Professions is the largest producer of allied health graduates in Texas. Most of its students are Latino, Black and from lower-incomes backgrounds. We spoke with Eric Bing , CHCP's CEO, to hear how the college and its students are holding up during the pandemic. Bing talked about how the college has designed its credentials to be stackable, and how higher education can b...