What a difference ten years makes. Over ten years ago, on August 14, 2008, President George W. Bush signed into law the 2008 Higher Education Opportunity Act, the last comprehensive reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA). The world has changed a lot since then. In 2008, Facebook hadn’t rolled out its “Like” button, Netflix…

Whether it is in the news and television commercials or cropping up in proposed legislative and regulatory changes, “competency-based education” continues to dominate the conversation around innovation in higher education. And for good reason; there are hundreds of forward-thinking institutions that are offering CBE programs. Many of these prog...

 America’s system of higher education is currently in the throes of two distinct, but intertwined crises: one generally understood, the other less so. The crisis everyone understands is affordability and unsustainable levels of student loan debt. The other crisis is employability. Nearly half of all college graduates are underemployed in their f...

Today’s student bodies are growing more diverse by many key metrics, underscoring the urgent need for institutional leaders and policymakers to address historic challenges affecting student finances, wellbeing, and success. In this environment, innovation is at a premium as leaders work to adapt to change. While many players within the higher edu...

With the economic reality that two-thirds of jobs will require education beyond high school by 2020, it’s clear that education or training beyond high school is a prerequisite for individuals to flourish in an increasingly complex and fluid talent economy. This also has clear, and worrying, implications for recovering economies across the United ...

How well do you know today’s students? Their stories may surprise you. Over the past few months, we’ve been reaching out to students and collecting stories that showcase just a few of the incredible individuals who are balancing family, career, finances, and education. At the newly-revamped TodaysStudents.org, you can listen to first-han...

One of the challenges holding back federal policy is the disconnect between the experiences of today’s students and the conventional wisdom around what college is like. Too often, myths and misconceptions take root that contradict student realities. For example, we tend to think of students as 18-22 year-olds hanging out on the quad, studying...

I work for a 16,000-member association that, like many other higher education organizations, has a goal of helping all students succeed. In fact, I think the words “student success”, particularly for undergraduate students, may finally be popular enough to surpass “big data”, which are two words that I think have permeated nearly every inst...