Agile change management in higher education is no longer optional. Institutions are navigating continuous disruption from AI, shifting student expectations, workforce pressures, and internal cultural resistance. The challenge leaders face is not how to implement change once, but how to build the institutional ability to adapt continuously.

In this episode of the Changing Higher Ed® podcast, Dr. Drumm McNaughton speaks with Dr. Christine Janssen Founder and CEO of Edstutia, an immersive learning company focused on adult learning, about why higher education must move from traditional change models to an agile, iterative approach to leadership, teaching, and institutional strategy.

Drawing on her experience in both higher education and entrepreneurial environments, Janssen explains why institutions struggle when they treat change as a project rather than an operating condition. McNaughton and Janssen outline how agile thinking, faculty adaptation, and a willingness to experiment have become essential leadership capabilities for presidents, boards, and faculty alike.

· Why traditional change management models no longer match today's environment

· How agile, iterative approaches help institutions adapt faster than governance cycles

· Why AI is exposing weaknesses in traditional teaching and assessment methods

· The role of faculty culture as both a barrier and a solution to meaningful change

· Why preparing students for uncertainty requires faculty to be comfortable with it

· How institutions risk becoming the "yellow cab" in a world expecting "Uber-level" responsiveness

· How AI forces faculty to redesign assignments and assessment methods

· Why student evaluations often measure the wrong outcomes

· How other industries were disrupted by ignoring customer expectations

· Examples of leaders who prioritize faculty development and innovation

1. Institutions must change how they think about change before they can change behaviors.

2. Faculty partnership and professional development are essential to institutional adaptability.

3. The greatest risk to higher education is waiting to see what others will do.

This episode offers higher education leaders a practical framework for understanding why many institutional struggles stem not from isolated issues, but from an outdated approach to change itself.

Read the transcript: https://changinghighered.com/agile-change-management-for-higher-education-leaders/

#HigherEducation #ChangeManagement #HigherEducationPodcast

In this episode of the Changing Higher Ed® podcast, Dr. Drumm McNaughton speaks with Jeff Meade, Founding Director of the Every Quinnite is an Entrepreneur program at Paul Quinn College, about how the institution has embedded entrepreneurship into the operating model of the college itself.

Rather than treating entrepreneurship as an elective or a business school track, Paul Quinn uses it as a structural solution to some of higher education's biggest challenges: workforce readiness, student engagement, institutional costs, and student debt.

As one of only eight federally recognized work colleges in the United States, Paul Quinn requires all resident freshmen and sophomores to work on campus in meaningful operational roles. By junior and senior year, students transition into paid positions with corporate partners such as Southwest Airlines and Goldman Sachs. At the same time, every freshman completes a required entrepreneurship course during summer bridge, and students begin building and pitching real venture ideas that can receive seed funding from the college.

Jeff explains how this model allows the college to lower tuition by redesigning its business structure, how corporate partnerships create a true workforce pipeline rather than traditional internships, and how entrepreneurship is used to teach students to become entrepreneurs of their own lives.

This conversation is especially relevant for institutional leaders looking for practical ways to improve workforce readiness, reduce student debt, strengthen retention, and break down academic silos without adding new programs or increasing costs.

Topics Covered:

• How the federal work college model changes both student engagement and institutional costs

• Why Paul Quinn lowered tuition by changing its operating model rather than increasing discounting

• How campus work transitions into paid corporate roles for juniors and seniors

• The required summer bridge entrepreneurship course for every freshman

• How student ventures are integrated into multiple academic disciplines

• The role of faculty leadership development through supervising student workers

• Why partnerships, both external and internal, are central to the model

• How a seed fund is designed to be self-sustaining through student venture revenue

Real-World Examples Discussed:

• A student learning grant research and development by working directly in the entrepreneurship department

• Students working in enrollment management and representing the college at recruitment events

• Corporate partners sponsoring pitch competitions and hiring students into paid roles

• Students earning income that both offsets tuition and builds professional experience

• Freshmen pitching business ideas based on problems they see in their own communities

Three Key Takeaways for Leadership:

• Partner with other institutions, corporations, and entrepreneurs rather than trying to build everything internally

• Design entrepreneurship and experiential learning models to be self-sustaining, not cost centers

• Make entrepreneurship universal across the student body so it becomes part of the institutional DNA

Dr. McNaughton's Bonus Takeaway:

• Partnerships must exist internally across departments as well as externally to prevent silos and fully integrate the model

This episode provides a clear example of how entrepreneurship can function as an institutional design strategy, not just a curricular offering.

Read the transcript: https://changinghighered.com/entrepreneurship-to-redesign-college-operating-model/

#HigherEducation #StudentSuccess #WorkforceReadiness #Entrepreneurship

Workforce readiness, hands-on learning, and flexible credentialing are no longer peripheral conversations in higher education. They are central to how institutions are being judged on value, relevance, and outcomes.

In this episode of Changing Higher Ed podcast, Dr. Drumm McNaughton speaks with Jarred McNeely, Provost and Chief Academic Officer at Sonoran Desert Institute, about how applied, skills-based education can be delivered beyond traditional campuses without sacrificing rigor or quality.

McNeely shares how SDI redesigned hands-on instruction for distributed learners by moving labs into students' homes, rethinking assessment around demonstrated competence, and investing heavily in faculty training and support. The conversation explores what these approaches mean not just for trade and technical programs, but for institutions across higher education facing increasing pressure around cost, completion, and workforce alignment.

This episode is especially relevant for presidents, provosts, and academic leaders evaluating how applied learning, credential flexibility, and faculty systems can evolve to meet today's student realities.

• Why hands-on learning does not require centralized labs
• How lab kits, video-based assessment, and staged progression support skill development
• What it takes to train and support faculty in distributed, applied programs
• How simulation and practicum models expand access without lowering standards
• Why stackable credentials better align with real career movement
• The role of critical thinking and problem identification in applied education

1. Learning should be assessed by demonstrated competence, not physical presence
2. Faculty training and support systems are the primary drivers of instructional quality
3. Flexible, stackable credentials reduce student risk while supporting long-term engagement

Read the transcript or extended show summary: https://changinghighered.com/reduce-student-debt-risk-improve-employability/

#HigherEducation #WorkforceDevelopment #AppliedLearning #HigherEdLeadership #ChangingHigherEd

Empathy is easy to talk about and harder to practice when the pressure is high. In higher education, leaders are often navigating conflict, fatigue, and urgency, which is exactly when empathy gets misread as weakness instead of treated as a leadership competency.

In this episode of the Changing Higher Ed® podcast, Dr. Drumm McNaughton speaks with Dr. Laura Parson, Associate Professor at North Dakota State University and founder of The Empathy Classroom, about building empathy as a practical skill leaders can use without surrendering standards or authority.

Parson breaks empathy down into usable behaviors, including perspective-taking, emotional self-management, and question framing that reduces defensiveness. The discussion also addresses "empathy light," when leaders perform empathy for external outcomes instead of practicing it authentically, and why that approach erodes trust.

This conversation is especially relevant for institutional leaders who want stronger communication, better decision follow-through, and a healthier leadership culture in environments where people are stretched thin and reactions run hot.

• What empathy is as a competency and how it differs from sympathy
• Why empathy does not require agreement or abandoning standards
• How to reduce defensiveness through better questions and language choices
• Self-other distinction and why absorbing others' emotions accelerates burnout
• Mindfulness and emotional literacy as leadership tools
• "Empathy lite" and how performative empathy undermines trust
• How leaders can develop empathy through practice, role play, and scenario rehearsal

• Reframing accusatory "why" questions into curiosity-based questions that invite explanation
• The "waves" metaphor for managing constant emotions as a senior leader without burning out
• An executive's post-meeting reset ritual to physically "shake off" emotional residue
• Using breath work or box breathing after emotionally charged interactions

1. Model empathy visibly so others understand what it looks like in your environment.
2. Listen, demonstrate that you heard what was said, and reinforce it through action.
3. Treat perspective-taking as a discipline by learning to see issues through multiple stakeholder lenses.

Read the extended show summary or transcript: https://changinghighered.com/empathy-in-higher-education-leadership/

#HigherEducation #HigherEducationLeadership #EmpathyInEducation

In this episode of the Changing Higher Ed podcast, Dr. Drumm McNaughton speaks with Dr. Dan Predoehl, assistant dean of Extended Learning and director of the Emeritus Institute at Saddleback College, one of the nation's highest-performing community colleges.

The conversation focuses on why enrollment challenges persist even at strong institutions and how treating enrollment as a shared responsibility—rather than a system with clear executive ownership—creates fragmentation across admissions, student services, academics, and outcomes. Dr. Predoehl explains the Chief Enrollment Management Officer concept and why a cabinet-level role is increasingly necessary to align enrollment strategy with institutional mission, student success, and long-term viability.

Drawing on experience across community colleges and four-year institutions, the discussion examines how enrollment, retention, completion, workforce alignment, and equity outcomes are shaped by leadership structure—not just tactics.

Topics Covered:

• Why enrollment is a system, not a department

• How diffused responsibility undermines retention and completion

• The limits of presidential oversight without executive enrollment ownership

• How workforce alignment strengthens enrollment strategy

• Why open access increases the need for strategic focus

• The role faculty partnership plays in sustainable enrollment management

Three Key Takeaways for Higher Education Leaders:

• Enrollment outcomes reflect system design, not individual office performance

• Retention, completion, and workforce alignment are core enrollment responsibilities

• Institutions risk long-term instability when enrollment lacks clear executive ownership

This episode is especially relevant for presidents, provosts, enrollment leaders, and senior administrators looking beyond short-term fixes toward structural solutions to enrollment pressure.

Read the transcript and extended show summary: https://changinghighered.com/chief-enrollment-management-officer-in-higher-education/

#HigherEducation #EnrollmentManagement #HigherEducationPodcast

Institutional transformation in higher education is often described in broad terms. At Stevens Institute of Technology, Dr. Nariman Farvardin describes transformation in operational terms: disciplined strategic planning, academic realignment, and year-after-year execution systems that produced what Dr. Drumm McNaughton calls the Stevens Miracle.

In this episode of the Changing Higher Ed podcast, Dr. Drumm McNaughton speaks with Dr. Nariman Farvardin, President of Stevens Institute of Technology, about how Stevens achieved sustained success since he became president in 2011. Under Dr. Farvardin's leadership, undergraduate applications increased 294%, enrollment grew approximately 75%, research funding increased 199%, and the university invested more than $500 million in campus improvements. Stevens also reports first-year retention approaching 96%, graduation rates near 90%, and approximately 97% of graduates employed or in graduate school within six months.

Dr. Farvardin explains the institutional "secret sauce" behind those results: an inclusive strategic planning process that builds ownership across faculty, staff, students, administrators, and trustees, paired with execution discipline that keeps the plan active through regular progress reporting, annual written results, and objectives letters that tie leadership goals directly to strategic priorities. He also walks through Stevens' academic realignment, including the SUCCESS curriculum, which ensures every student graduates with foundational exposure to five areas: artificial intelligence, quantum computing, biotechnology, sustainability, and data science. The discussion also covers student support structures that reinforce student experience and outcomes, including the first-year experience model delivered in 45–47 sections annually, with faculty serving as coaches for small groups of students.

• How Stevens used inclusive strategic planning to build campus-wide ownership and momentum
• Why execution systems matter more than a polished strategic plan document
• How Stevens keeps the strategic plan active through regular updates, annual reports, and objectives letters
• What the SUCCESS curriculum is and why it represents academic realignment, not a one-off initiative
• The five technology areas every Stevens graduate is exposed to through SUCCESS
• How the first-year experience course operates at scale and why it supports retention
• How Stevens operationalized student-centered service so student issues are owned, not deflected
• Why transparency and shared responsibility improved faculty engagement with change
• How Stevens uses honesty about what did not work to keep planning credible
• What presidents and boards should focus on if they want transformation that holds over time

• A leadership execution model that breaks strategy into smaller goals, distributes them across divisions, and updates them annually through objectives letters
• A first-year experience structure delivered in 45–47 small sections (20–25 students each) with faculty serving as ongoing coaches
• A student support expectation that staff "own" the student's problem until it is solved, instead of sending students office-to-office

1. A well-designed strategic plan paired with disciplined execution is essential, even when it requires difficult and unpopular decisions
2. A strong, functional relationship between the president and the board is critical to sustaining momentum and leadership effectiveness
3. Trust-based working relationships between leadership, faculty, and staff are required for long-term success and leadership sustainability

Read the transcript or extended show summary: https://changinghighered.com/stevens-tech-strategic-planning-transformation/

#HigherEducation #StrategicPlanning #UniversityLeadership #BoardGovernance #StudentSuccess

Higher education enters 2026 under conditions that are no longer hypothetical. In this 8th annual end-of-year episode of the Changing Higher Ed® podcast, Dr. Drumm McNaughton is joined by Tom Netting of TEN Government Strategies to review how the predictions made at the end of 2024 played out during the 2025 operating year and what those outcomes mean for institutional planning in 2026.

Rather than offering speculative forecasts, this episode uses 2025 as a calibration year. When predictions materialize, they remove ambiguity. They clarify which pressures are structural, which risks persist, and which leadership assumptions are no longer defensible. For presidents, boards, and senior leadership teams preparing for 2026, this conversation provides a grounded planning context based on conditions already in motion.

Topics Covered

• What 2025 confirmed about federal policy instability, accountability, cost pressure, enrollment volatility, and governance risk

• Why the Department of Education is likely to remain in place through 2026 and why its continued existence should not be mistaken for stability

• How redistribution of authority across federal agencies increases compliance complexity for institutions

• Where student loans are likely to move within the federal system and why institutions face growing exposure to borrower outcomes

• Why broad student debt forgiveness remains unlikely and what limited relief options may realistically emerge

• How accountability is shifting toward program-level scrutiny and the implications for academic realignment

• Why accreditation reform remains unsettled and why leaders should treat accreditation as a strategic risk factor

• Workforce Pell expansion, quality oversight challenges, and the risk of fraud and abuse in short-term credentials

• The growing role of states in accountability as federal capacity contracts

• Research funding as political leverage and the planning risk created by funding uncertainty

• Polarization as an operational challenge affecting enrollment, safety, governance, and public trust

• Technology, AI, cybersecurity, and NIST compliance as board-level responsibilities

• Enrollment, demographic decline, cost escalation, and financial pressure entering the 2026 planning cycle

• Mergers, closures, and structural collaboration as necessary adaptation strategies

Key Planning Judgments for 2026

• The Department of Education will persist but continue to shrink and fragment

• Student loans will move further away from the Department, increasing institutional exposure

• Accountability pressure will intensify, particularly at the program level

• Accreditation reform will remain unresolved beyond 2026

• Workforce Pell will expand, bringing both opportunity and heightened oversight risk

• Research funding will remain politically vulnerable

• Cost pressure will continue to drive consolidation and closures

• Technology and cybersecurity will demand sustained leadership attention

This episode is especially relevant for presidents and trustees navigating compressed decision timelines, thinner margins for error, and declining tolerance for ambiguity. The focus is not prediction for its own sake, but clarity about the forces institutions must plan around as they enter 2026.

#HigherEducation #HigherEd2026StrategicPlanning #HigherEducationPodcast

In this episode of the Changing Higher Ed® podcast, Dr. Drumm McNaughton speaks with Dr. Ashley Finley, Vice President of Research and Senior Advisor to the President at the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), about the findings of the 2025 AAC&U Employer Survey and what they reveal about employer expectations for higher education.

Based on nearly 20 years of longitudinal research, the 2025 survey challenges many of the dominant public narratives about the value of college. Employers continue to express strong confidence in higher education, place equal importance on workforce preparation and citizenship, and increasingly emphasize adaptability, judgment, and civic capacity as core professional requirements.

Dr. Finley explains how employers view civic skills as workplace competencies, why mindsets and dispositions are now baseline expectations rather than "soft skills," and how AI is reshaping what it means to be prepared for an uncertain future. The conversation also addresses generational differences among employers, the growing role of microcredentials, and why institutions must model the agility they expect from graduates.

This episode is especially relevant for presidents, trustees, provosts, and senior leaders navigating political pressure, workforce alignment, and questions about institutional value.

Topics Covered:

• What the 2025 AAC&U Employer Survey reveals that public narratives often miss

• Why employers see preparing informed citizens and a skilled workforce as inseparable goals

• How civic skills, including constructive disagreement, translate directly to workplace success

• Why motivation, resilience, initiative, and self-awareness are now baseline hiring expectations

• How employers think about AI readiness beyond simple tool proficiency

• Which student experiences increase hiring likelihood beyond internships

• How employers evaluate the credibility and value of microcredentials and certificates

• Generational shifts in employer expectations and what they signal for the future

Three Takeaways for University Presidents and Boards:

• Institutions must communicate learning outcomes more clearly, including mindsets and dispositions, so students can articulate who they are becoming, not just what they know.

• Career-relevant experiences extend far beyond internships; leadership roles, campus employment, and community engagement carry significant employer value and are often more scalable.

• Agility must be modeled institutionally. Employers value adaptability, and colleges and universities cannot promote it in students while resisting change themselves.

Bonus Takeaway from Dr. McNaughton:

• Employers continue to value higher education and the four-year degree, despite political rhetoric and cost-driven narratives suggesting otherwise. This disconnect presents both a risk and an opportunity for institutional leaders.

This conversation offers data-grounded insight into how employers actually view higher education—and what leaders can do to align strategy, communication, and culture with those expectations.

Read the full transcript: https://changinghighered.com/strategic-insights-2025-aacu-employer-survey/

#HigherEducation #HigherEducationLeadership #AACU #EmployerSurvey #WorkforceReadiness #ChangingHigherEdPodcast

Higher education communication is no longer a marketing function. It is a strategic discipline shaped by political pressure, governance risk, and real-time public scrutiny.

In this episode of the Changing Higher Ed® podcast, Dr. Drumm McNaughton speaks with David Maffei, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Americas at Staffbase, about how university presidents and boards must rethink how communication functions inside their institutions under today's crisis-driven conditions.

Drawing on more than two decades of enterprise and higher education communications leadership, Maffei explains why internal communication now determines external credibility, why preparedness is the defining variable in crisis response, and how fragmented communication structures quietly undermine institutional trust. The discussion also explores how technology and AI amplify leadership discipline rather than replace it, and why presidential communication can no longer be delegated.

This conversation is especially relevant for presidents, boards, and senior leadership teams navigating political pressure, public scrutiny, and rising expectations for transparency, alignment, and trust.

• Why internal communication now drives external brand credibility
• How crisis preparedness exposes governance strength or weakness
• Why internal notification must come before public announcements
• How political pressure reshapes presidential communication risk
• Why communication is now a core presidential competency
• The role of ego management in institutional leadership
• How siloed communication tools fracture institutional alignment
• Why unified board and presidential signaling protects credibility
• How technology and AI magnify leadership discipline
• Why communication is now embedded inside strategy, not downstream from it

1. Preparedness determines whether crisis strengthens or destabilizes trust.
2. Internal communication discipline now shapes external credibility in real time.
3. Unified signaling between presidents and boards is no longer optional.

This episode offers practical, governance-level insight into why communication performance is now inseparable from institutional performance — and how higher education leaders can protect credibility under sustained pressure.

Read the transcript or extended show summary: https://changinghighered.com/higher-education-communication-strategy-crisis/

#HigherEducation #HigherEducationPodcast #UniversityLeadership #HigherEdCommunication

Accreditation is becoming one of the clearest pressure points for colleges and universities. Federal expectations are shifting, public skepticism is rising, and accreditors are preparing for changes that will affect how institutions demonstrate quality, mission alignment, and student success. In this episode of the Changing Higher Ed® podcast, Dr. Drumm McNaughton speaks with Dr. Nasser H. Paydar, President and CEO of CHEA, about how these forces are converging—and what presidents and boards need to do now to stay ahead of the next wave of accreditation demands.

This conversation is especially relevant for presidents, trustees, and senior leaders who rely on accreditation as both a quality framework and a strategic tool.

Topics Covered:

• How accelerating federal expectations and negotiated rulemaking will affect accreditors and institutions
• Why transparency and accessible program information have become central to public trust
• How demographic pressures, financial strain, and uneven completion rates intersect with accreditation expectations
• Why boards and presidents must link student success metrics directly to strategy and resource decisions
• How CHEA is working with regional and programmatic accreditors to align expectations and strengthen peer review
• The growing importance of global quality assurance partnerships, including CHEA's agreement with ANQAHE
• How AI, technology adoption, and workforce alignment are influencing accreditation priorities

Real-World Issues Discussed:

• Institutions where advising, transfer, and unclear program costs undermine student outcomes
• Campuses are struggling to adapt learning and assessment practices to AI-driven environments
• Boards that cannot provide effective oversight without clear student success indicators
• The risk institutions face when transparency gaps erode public confidence

Three Key Takeaways for Leadership:

• Leaders must treat student success as the organizing principle for institutional strategy and accreditation readiness.
• Institutions that respond quickly to evidence, policy trends, and accreditation expectations will protect autonomy and maintain stability.
• Boards and presidents must align governance, mission, and transparency to rebuild trust and guide institutions through uncertainty.

Read the transcript or the extended show summary: https://changinghighered.com/student-success-through-higher-education-accreditation-chea/

#HigherEdLeadership #Accreditation #StudentSuccess #HigherEducationPodcast