The Key with Inside Higher Ed

In this episode of Voices of Student Success, Inside Higher Ed's podcast series exploring what really shapes students' experiences, Christa Acampora, dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Virginia, joins IHE student success reporter Joshua Bay. As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly embedded in higher education and the workforce, colleges and universities are grappling with how to prepare students for a future in which the skills and knowledge they need to succeed are becoming more difficult to predict. While institutions work to equip students with the technical skills they need to navigate emerging technologies, questions remain about how administrators can also cultivate the critical thinking, creativity and human judgment that remain central to a college education. They discuss how colleges can navigate the rise of AI while supporting students’ intellectual, personal and professional development.

Universities and colleges own the discoveries they make with federal research funding thanks to the Bayh-Dole Act. Since it passed in 1980, commercialized innovations from federally funded research have contributed trillions of dollars to the U.S. economy, according to the Bayh-Dole Coalition. Some of the discoveries made possible by the Bayh-Dole act include Google, tests for cervical cancer, lithium car battery recycling and high-definition video and audio. In this episode of The Key, IHE’s editor in chief Sara Custer speaks with Joe Allen, the executive director of the Bayh-Dole coalition, to understand the origins of the legislation and how it could be upended by changes to policies governing research funding.

In this episode of Voices of Student Success, Inside Higher Ed's podcast series exploring what really shapes students' experiences, Félix Matos Rodríguez, chancellor of the City University of New York, joins IHE student success reporter Joshua Bay. As students and families increasingly question the value of a college education amid an uncertain job market, institutions are placing greater emphasis on career readiness and how they can better prepare students to succeed in the workforce. They discuss how colleges can make career readiness a more integral part of the student experience, what CUNY hopes to accomplish through its recent expansion of CUNY Beyond, and how higher education can better prepare students for a rapidly changing workforce as well as support their long-term success.

In this episode of Voices of Student Success, Inside Higher Ed's podcast series exploring what really shapes students' experiences, Alexis Redding, a developmental psychologist and professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, joins IHE student success reporter Joshua Bay. Colleges have devoted growing attention and resources to student well-being in recent years, but supporting mental health goes far beyond what happens inside a counseling center. Students’ well-being can be shaped by nearly every part of the college experience—from the expectations they bring with them to campus and the academic, financial and social pressures they encounter to how they navigate setbacks, uncertainty and the transition into adulthood. They unpack what colleges may still misunderstand about student mental health, how the broader college experience shapes students’ well-being, where normal stress and struggle fit into the conversation, and what it would look like for institutions to build a culture of care that supports students throughout college and beyond.

In their new book, Faculties: A Dialogue on Inciting Constructive Change in Destructive Times (Duke University Press) Cathy Davidson, founder of the Futures Initiative at the CUNY Graduate Center, and Jody Greene, founding director of the Teaching and Learning Center at UC Santa Cruz, call on faculty to get involved in the decisions shaping their institutions' futures. They join Inside Higher Ed editor in chief Sara Custer to talk about the book, which they describe as part love letter, part self-help guide. They dig into why faculty have lost ground in institutional leadership and how the rift between academics and administrators got so wide. Cathy and Jody share how faculty should respond to claims that they're brainwashing students with leftist ideology, and how to get informed about the challenges facing the sector. (Hint: Start with Inside Higher Ed every morning.)