Higher Ed Spotlight

Sally Kornbluth is the new president of MIT - probably the most prestigious STEM school around. But she also stands up for the arts and the humanities and champions their integration within the sciences. Sally believes that graduating students with great technical skills isn't enough in today's demanding job market, nor will rigid academic silos help us face our most pressing challenges, like climate change.

Higher Ed Spotlight is sponsored by Chegg's Center for Digital Learning and aims to explore the future of higher education. It is produced by Antica Productions.

The Biden administration recently urged 16 governors to rectify their state's chronic underfunding of Historically Black Colleges and Universities - HBCUs. That underfunding reached hundreds of millions to, in some cases, billions of dollars. Darrick Hamilton is an Economics Professor and founding director of The New School's Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy. He argues for the proper funding of HBCUs, especially in light of the Supreme Court's decision to ban affirmative action in college admissions. In fact, he contends that HBCUs have done so much with so little, that a debt is owed to them.

Higher Ed Spotlight is sponsored by Chegg's Center for Digital Learning and aims to explore the future of higher education. It is produced by Antica Productions.

Peter Norvig is a big deal in AI. He's currently at Stanford's Human-Centered AI Institute. But he built his reputation mainly at Google, where he helped shape the most powerful and widely used search engine today. What does an AI expert have to say about higher education's adoption of new technologies, the dangers of AI-assisted cheating, and the bigger question of academia's purpose?

Higher Ed Spotlight is sponsored by Chegg's Center for Digital Learning and aims to explore the future of higher education. It is produced by Antica Productions.

Arizona State University President Michael Crow is known as an education innovator and early tech adopter. Most recently, his university turned to Hollywood to revamp its intro biology labs into a full VR experience. How does he navigate the concerns and often reluctance of higher ed to innovate around learning and tech?

Higher Ed Spotlight is sponsored by Chegg's Center for Digital Learning and aims to explore the future of higher education. It is produced by Antica Productions.

Higher education is in trouble. A declining birthrate means fewer young people applying to college. But what if we did more to cater to older students and not just recent high school grads? Eloy Ortiz Oakley, the President of College Futures Foundation and former head of the California Community Colleges system, has been advocating for higher ed to pay attention to the needs of adult learners for decades now. Are they the answer to the enrollment cliff?

Higher Ed Spotlight is sponsored by Chegg's Center for Digital Learning and aims to explore the future of higher education. It is produced by Antica Productions.

As colleges and universities continue to debate the usefulness of admissions tests like the SAT, we talk to FairTest's Akil Bello. He argues that admissions tests aren't good indicators of student success and that the SAT has come to mean way more than it should within and outside of the walls of academia.

Higher Ed Spotlight is sponsored by Chegg's Center for Digital Learning and aims to explore the future of higher education. It is produced by Antica Productions.

Rachel Lipson is the co-editor of the new book "America's Hidden Economic Engines: How Community Colleges Can Drive Shared Prosperity." She shares what the five community colleges profiled in the book are getting right and how they're fulfilling the institution's promise of community economic growth and student career advancement.

Higher Ed Spotlight is sponsored by Chegg's Center for Digital Learning and aims to explore the future of higher education. It is produced by Antica Productions.

After almost 30 years, incarcerated students are once again eligible to receive Pell Grants. It's a significant move with reverberations beyond prison. But providing college courses to incarcerated students isn't easy. Andrea Cantora, Director of the University of Baltimore's Second Chance College Program, sheds light on the importance of this move, the bipartisan shift it signals from punishment to rehabilitation, and what it's like to teach in prison.

Higher Ed Spotlight is sponsored by Chegg's Center for Digital Learning and aims to explore the future of higher education. It is produced by Antica Productions.

"Universities on Fire: Higher Education in the Climate Crisis" is a provocative new book by author and futurist Bryan Alexander. He believes academia is uniquely poised to be a key player in the climate change debate and that the time has come for academics to step outside of the ivory tower and influence the public conversation.

Higher Ed Spotlight is sponsored by Chegg's Center for Digital Learning and aims to explore the future of higher education. It is produced by Antica Productions.

A wide ranging interview with the new President of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), Valerie Sheares Ashby. We touch on the legacy she's inherited of inclusive excellence, what it takes to diversify STEM, and the challenges of leading a major state university in the current political climate.

Higher Ed Spotlight is sponsored by Chegg's Center for Digital Learning and aims to explore the future of higher education. It is produced by Antica Productions.