In my five years at the foundation, I have done a good number of presentations, panel discussions, and speeches. And one of the things I enjoy most about these experiences is the opportunity to hear from people from across our enterprise and our nation. The most common— and vexing— question I receive from audiences is “What is your read on the future of college?”

Four in 10 students are non-white, one-third are the first in their family to attempt college, and more than a quarter are parents as well as students. If higher education is going to remain relevant and better serve today’s college students, our content and product providers must make strides to catch up in terms of diversity – and keep up.

Lasting institutional change is a combination of attention and intention, and Sinclair Community College gets that. And while they recognize that there is still a good distance to travel on their student success journey, they have already made great strides and have learned lessons that can benefit thousands – if not millions – of today’s college students.

While graduation season is filled with inspiring stories of persistence, sacrifice, and accomplishment, it also gives rise to some lingering myths about our students and what it takes for them to get to graduation. These myths hurt students because they help preserve a status quo in which not enough of them succeed. We can and must bust these myths.

While we’ve opened our doors to all Americans in the past 50 years, effectively democratizing access to higher education, we’ve done relatively little to adapt education so that it meets the needs of the students who now make up our majority. This trend matters because it forces us to ask whether yesterday’s education – the one that worked so well for us – is appropriate for today’s economy and for today’s students.

In so many respects, public higher education really does reflect the best of America’s past. This enterprise can also represent the best of our country’s future, provided that we have the will to evolve so that we may meet our changing demographic and economic needs.

A comparison of the roles of colleges in promoting economic mobility showed that access to colleges that can provide upward mobility has decreased. John Friedman argues that it is more important now than ever to find new policies to reverse this decline.

Effective and courageous leadership is an essential element of change in higher ed. Understanding what is required of leaders in a time of change and uncertainty is time well invested.

by Heather Hiles Over the past several years, significant progress has been made in college advising, thanks to the creative and tireless efforts of many of our partners. Perhaps the most significant advance has been the broader acceptance of various advising technologies as productivity tools for advisors and as direct, self-service support for students. That […]

Change is hard, especially for an enterprise as given to tradition as higher education. But shifting the conversation about higher education in a changing world – and then taking action – is critical to our efforts to help more students get to and through college.