The Key with Inside Higher Ed

Ep 79: Withholding Transcripts to Collect Student Debt

This week's episode of The Key explores why some institutions use those policies and why consumer advocates think they're pernicious, even though they're only a small fraction of the $1.7 trillion student debt problem in American higher education.

Martin Kurzweil, director of the institutional transformation program at Ithaka S+R, discusses research on what it calls “stranded credits” that colleges sometimes hold hostage from former students and a promising experiment that could offer a way out for students and colleges alike.

Melanie Gottlieb, executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, explains why many higher ed officials oppose potential federal regulation to ban such policies, but acknowledges the need for colleges to limit the kinds of debt they try to collect from students.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Editor Doug Lederman. ​This episode is sponsored by Kaplan.

Ep 78: Dropping the Degree as a Hiring Requirement

Last month the State of Maryland announced that it would no longer require a bachelor’s degree in the hiring process for nearly half of its jobs, joining a growing number of companies and other employers.

Some people in higher education might view steps like that as a slight, since Maryland and other employers are responding in part to questions about the value of degrees and growing concerns about the cost – and opportunity cost – of earning one.

But in this week’s episode of The Key, Bridgette Gray of the nonprofit group Opportunity@Work, which is helping Maryland identify non-degreed workers to fill jobs in technology, administration and customer service, describes the market conditions that prompted the state’s decision and why equity was a primary factor behind its move.

And Brandon Busteed of Kaplan explains how colleges and universities can respond in ways that not only sustain their relevance but position them better for the coming changes in how learning is likely to happen.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Editor Doug Lederman. This episode is sponsored by Kaplan. 

 

Ep 77: Turnover, Burnout and Demoralization in Higher Ed

Employers of all kinds are struggling to hold on to their employees in the wake of the pandemic and amid a white-hot job market. Data recently released by the University of North Carolina system, for instance, shows that faculty and staff turnover in the first half of this academic year was about 40 percent higher than the average of the last four years.

Are colleges and universities just dealing with the same issues other industries are facing? Or are there unique problems in higher ed that campus leaders need to acknowledge?

This week’s episode of The Key features a discussion with Kevin McClure, associate professor of higher education at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, who’s been writing about these issues and this summer will begin a three-year research project examining working conditions at public institutions in his state.

In our conversation, he explores some of the reasons for the turnover, assesses the impact of the pandemic, and explains the difference between burnout and demoralization, both of which are probably playing a role.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Doug Lederman. 

Ep 76: Reprise | Combatting Student Cheating

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, student academic misconduct spiked, and an episode of The Key explored the reasons why and steps colleges and professors might take to combat it.

The issue hasn’t gone away, even though a lot of instruction has returned to the physical classroom. So this week we revisit the February 2021 conversations, which remain timely and relevant.

First up is Bradley Davis, associate director of the office of student conduct at North Carolina State University, who discusses the steps the university took in response to a roughly three-fold increase in academic misconduct cases NC State experienced in the wake of the shift to remote learning.

In the second half of the episode, we bring in some national context through a conversation with two experts on academic integrity and learning. David Rettinger is a professor of psychological science and Director of Academic Integrity Programs at the University of Mary Washington, as well as president emeritus of the International Center for Academic Integrity. Kate McConnell is assistant vice president for research and assessment and director of the Value Institute at the Association of American Colleges and Universities.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Editor Doug Lederman.

Ep 75: Anticipating Higher Education’s Near Future(s)

How has the COVID-19 pandemic and the other upheaval of the last couple of years changed the outlook for colleges, their students and their employees?

Bryan Alexander is a writer, author, teacher and “futurist.” He wrote the 2020 book Academia Next and hosts his own series of video conversations, The Future Trends Forum.

In this week’s episode of The Key podcast, he first explains the work of professional futurists, and how they differ from other kinds of analysts who operate as if they owned crystal balls. Then Alexander explores a wide range of topics about how the COVID-19 pandemic, the drive for racial justice and other recent phenomena might affect the next few years in higher education, touching on technology, the curriculum, and his current focus, environmental sustainability.

 This episode is sponsored by Pearson Inclusive Access. Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Editor Doug Lederman.

Ep 74: Transforming Higher Ed, Live from SXSWEdu

“Transformation” is a buzzword in today’s world, and it’s easy to talk about why it’s necessary. But how do you actually do the hard work of bringing about change within a college or university?

This week's episode of The Key features highlights from a panel session at this month's SXSWedu conference in Austin, Tex. The discussion, heavy on practical advice for leading change within and across institutions, includes Michael Sorrell, president of Paul Quinn College; Michelle Weise, vice chancellor for strategy and innovation at the National University System; and Bridget Burns, executive director of the University Innovation Alliance.

Inside Higher Ed's editor and host of The Key, Doug Lederman, moderated the discussion. This episode is sponsored by Pearson Inclusive Access. 

Ep 73: HBCUs Team Up to Go Digital

Like a lot of undergraduate-focused, smaller institutions, historically black colleges and universities typically went online selectively, sporadically – or not at all. But that’s beginning to change, thanks to significant multi-college collaborations and help from funders increasingly recognizing the value and importance of these underresourced institutions.

This week’s episode of The Key examines several major initiatives in which major philanthropies, corporations and nonprofit organizations are helping groups of HBCUs strengthen their ability to reach and serve students by improving their digital infrastructures, training their faculty and launching a joint platform for virtual courses.

Featured on today’s episode is Ed Smith-Lewis, vice president for strategic partnerships and institutional programs at the United Negro College Fund, which is at the fulcrum of these efforts. He discusses how HBCUs have historically approached online and digital education, why those institutions are drawing so much attention (and funding) now, and the opportunities and challenges of getting numerous colleges to collaborate rather than compete.

This episode is sponsored by Pearson Inclusive Access. Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Editor Doug Lederman. 

Ep 72: Why Colleges Are Hiring More Non-White Presidents

It only took a few decades, but colleges and universities are hiring more Black and brown presidents to lead their institutions. 

This week's episode digs into data Inside Higher Ed published last month showing a big upturn in the proportion of minority presidents and chancellors that colleges hired in the year and a half after the death of George Floyd. Better than one in three presidents hired from June 2020 through November 2021 were people of color, a full quarter were Black, and the proportion of Latinx presidents who were appointed roughly doubled from the previous 18 months. 

Two guests join to dissect the data, what they mean and how much they matter. 

Lorelle L. Espinosa is program director at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, where she focuses on grantmaking that drives evidence-based change around diversity, equity and inclusion in STEM education. She formerly oversaw research on the college presidency and other topics at the American Council on Education. 

Eddie R. Cole, associate professor of higher education and history at the University of California, Los Angeles, offers some context about the current moment based on his study of the civil rights era, when colleges also sought to diversify their leadership (for a while).

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Doug Lederman

Ep 71: Injecting Social Mobility Into the Carnegie Classifications

The Carnegie Classifications are an enduring institution in higher education – but they’re about to undergo a facelift that could be dramatic.

This week’s episode of The Key explores the recent news that the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching -- which created the main system we use to differentiate among types of colleges and universities about 50 years ago – had chosen the American Council on Education, the largest and most diverse association of college presidents, to remake and run the classifications going forward.

Tim Knowles of Carnegie and Ted Mitchell of ACE discuss the new partnership and why the time is right to refresh the classifications. They emphasize their plan to add a significant focus on whether and how much colleges and universities contribute to social mobility and racial equity, potentially by adding an entirely new classification that would sort institutions by the degree to which they are engines of mobility and equity.

The episode includes a conversation with Brendan Cantwell, an associate professor and coordinator of the Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education program at Michigan State University, who discusses the potential unintended consequences of focusing too much on social mobility in college rankings.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Editor Doug Lederman

 

Ep 70: The Impact of COVID-19 Learning Disruption

College students almost certainly lost ground academically during the pandemic. But do we know how much? And what should colleges do about it?

This week’s episode explores a free report Inside Higher Ed published in December, “Back on Track: Helping Students Recover From COVID-19 Learning Disruption.”

It examines the available evidence about how the pandemic affected students’ educational paths, and finds, somewhat unsurprisingly, that most colleges really don’t know whether their students suffered what in the K-12 context is often called “learning loss” or “learning disruption.” But that doesn’t mean they aren’t adapting their practices and policies in areas such as placement, instruction, grading and assessment to help students make up whatever ground they’ve lost.

Participating in this discussion are Natasha Jankowski, a higher education and assessment consultant and former executive director of the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment; Matthew Gunkel, chief online learning and technology officer for the University of Missouri System; and Michael Hale, vice president of education at VitalSource. Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Co-founder and Editor Doug Lederman.

This episode is made possible by the support of VitalSource.com.