Venu Govindaraju is the senior vice president for research, innovation and economic development and a distinguished professor at the University at Buffalo. He's spent more than 30 years working in AI, building systems with real social impact — and he's also a poet, with a simple way of describing why the humanities still matter: AI finds the patterns. The humanities find the meaning behind them.

Inside Higher Ed editor in chief Sara Custer talks with him about the place of universities in the age of AI, why scientists should fail on purpose and how New York's Empire AI consortium model could help counterbalance big tech's grip on AI development. Stay tuned until the end of the episode when Venu reads a poem from his new collection or poetry Discovery of Self.

In this episode of Voices of Student Success, Inside Higher Ed’s podcast series exploring what really shapes students’ experiences, Terah Crews, chief executive officer of ReUp Education, joins IHE’s student success reporter, Joshua Bay.

While many students stop out before earning a credential, often they plan to return. Yet reenrolling can prove just as challenging as enrolling in the first place. As colleges look to reenroll adults with some college but no credential, they are rethinking how they support students whose educational journeys aren’t linear. They discuss why students stop out, what motivates them to return, the barriers colleges still place in their way and what it will take to build institutions that truly serve today’s adult learners.

This episode features an Inside Higher Ed newsroom discussion about a five-part series on registered apprenticeships. Underwritten by Ascendium, the six-month project saw the team battling hailstorms in Missouri, visiting factories in upstate New York and embedding themselves with learners on the job in South Carolina. What emerged is a clear picture of the American apprenticeship, distinct from decades-old European models, and how higher ed institutions can play a greater role in these pathways to careers.

Editor in chief Sara Custer is joined by Colleen Flaherty, senior editor for special content, senior report Sara Weissman, digital producer Justin Morrison, and Johanna Alonso IHE’s reporter for admissions and enrollment.

Read the full series:

Why and how higher education is leaning into apprenticeships

How apprenticeships and apprentices themselves are changing

A photo essay showing what apprenticeships really look like

Where apprenticeships are benefiting rural learners and their communities

What’s needed to scale apprenticeships?

In this episode of Voices of Student Success, Inside Higher Ed’s podcast series exploring what really shapes students’ experiences, Sara Weissman, senior reporter at IHE, joins student success reporter, Joshua Bay.

For generations, colleges were largely designed around the idea of an 18-year-old who enrolled straight out of high school, attended full time and followed a relatively linear path to graduation. But today’s students increasingly look different. In this episode, they explore who today’s college students really are, how higher education demographics have changed and why institutions are being challenged to rethink the traditional student model.

IHE editor in chief Sara Custer speaks with Devin Duncan, the student body president at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an incoming junior.  Duncan is passionate about making higher ed a better place for the next generation of students and wants to see colleges do more to support students’ complex needs. In this episode, he shares his thoughts about free speech on campus, tenure, what it’s like to be a Black student at a university that has ended all DEI programing and how he thinks higher ed can regain the public’s trust.

As we approach the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, an old historical narrative of American exceptionalism is taking hold. Meanwhile, evidence-based historical research is disappearing. The federal government has shuttered museum exhibits, politicized federal funding and removed any monuments seen to disparage Americans past or present. 

In this episode of The Key, Inside Higher Ed's editor in chief Sara Custer speaks with Sarah Weicksel, the executive director of the American Historical Association, about the organization’s efforts to double down on research integrity and its new approach to advocacy. She also explains how material objects can help reveal hidden stories and gives some advice on how to think about our shared history during politically divided times.

An update on the higher ed headlines from Inside Higher Ed's newsroom. 

Inside Higher Ed’s editor in chief Sara Custer and news editor Katherine Knott discuss the latest higher ed headlines: the proposals to change accreditation, the latest from the Office for Civil Rights, the GOP’s plan to plug the hole in Pell grant funding and how the administration is redirecting grants that support low-income students.

In this episode of Voices of Student Success, Inside Higher Ed’s podcast series exploring what really shapes students’ experiences, Zoe Ragouzeos, vice president for student mental health and wellbeing at New York University, joins IHE’s student success reporter, Joshua Bay.

As institutions face growing demand for mental health support, rising rates of loneliness and new questions about where students are turning for help, many campus leaders are being forced to rethink what student success actually requires. They explore where institutional responsibility begins and ends, how campuses can move beyond reactive approaches to mental health and what it would take to build environments where students don’t just persist—but truly thrive.

In this episode of Voices of Student Success, Inside Higher Ed’s podcast series exploring what really shapes students’ experiences, Alison Lee, chief research and development officer of The Rithm Project, joins IHE’s student success reporter, Joshua Bay.

As colleges struggle to meet growing mental health needs, they explore how more young people are opening up to chatbots and conversational AI tools for comfort, advice and connection. They also examine where AI may genuinely help students, where the ethical and emotional risks emerge, and what institutions may still not fully understand about why students are turning to these tools in the first place.

Policy makers and higher ed institutions have worked to provide better opportunities and resources for underserved communities, but access to affordable education and supports for rural students remains challenging. Meanwhile, threats to federal funding for TRIO programs could make it even harder for rural students to get into college and when they get on campus, few institutions understand their specific needs.

Mara Tieken, a professor of education at Bates College whose research centers on racial and educational equity in rural schools and communities, speaks with Inside Higher Ed’s editor in chief Sara Custer about the rural students she followed into an elite institution for her most recent book, how their challenges represent the experiences of many rural students in the country and what support for rural students on campus looks like.

Thanks to the University of Georgia for sponsoring this episode.