This year, thousands of students will be accepted to colleges without ever submitting a formal application. That’s because more and more schools are automatically accepting students who meet preset performance thresholds through direct admissions programs. To learn more about this growing trend, Michael and Jeff welcome Luke Skurman who is CEO of Niche.com, one of the nation’s largest direct admissions platforms. They discuss the benefits and risks of this innovation and dig into how it changes the dynamics between schools and students. Michael and Jeff then envision the variety of changes required in the college admissions process. This episode is made with support from Ascendium Education Group, the Gates Foundation, and the American College of Education.
Listen Now...Women have outnumbered men on college campuses for decades, but the divergence in postsecondary success has widened in recent years, and it is both a cause and symptom of the struggles of the modern man. Richard Reeves, author of Of Boys and Men joins the podcast to discuss the drivers of these challenges, promising interventions, and whether we should care about the plight of men in a world where they continue to wield power. This episode is made with support from the Gates Foundation, Ascendium Education Group, and The American College of Education.
Listen Now...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.
Listen Now...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.
Listen Now...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.
Listen Now...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.
Listen Now...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.
Listen Now...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.
Listen Now...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.
Listen Now...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.
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