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. 

In this episode of Voices of Student Success, Inside Higher Ed’s podcast series exploring what really shapes students’ experiences, Carson Domey, a fourth-year student at the University of Texas at Austin, and Adaora Lee, a graduate student at Meharry Medical College, joins IHE’s student success reporter, Joshua Bay.

They discuss student loneliness and what social isolation looks like in a post-pandemic, always-online world. From fewer close friendships and more device-mediated relationships, to the role platforms like Instagram and TikTok play in shaping how students understand their mental health, they explore how connection is changing on campus. They also look at how experiences differ for commuter and online students, how campus design and housing shape opportunities for connection, and what’s actually working when it comes to addressing student isolation.

In this episode of The Key, we’re digging into the minds of college presidents and how they’re dealing with the chaos of the current moment. Colleen Flaherty, Inside Higher Ed’s special content editor joins editor in chief Sara Custer to share some key findings from IHE’s 2026 survey of college and university presidents on what leaders see are the immediate and long-term risks to their institutions and how they’re managing to handle the mounting pressure on the college presidency.

Later, Marjorie Hass, president of the Council of Independent Colleges, explains why discussions about mergers and acquisitions are more common among private, non-profit institutions.

Thanks to Baylor University for sponsoring this episode. Join our conversation on human flourishing on May 4th in a webcast brought to you in partnership with Baylor University. 

In this episode of Voices of Student Success, Inside Higher Ed’s podcast series exploring what really shapes students’ experiences, Dr. Katie Hurley, vice president of community initiatives at The Jed Foundation (JED), joins IHE's student success reporter Joshua Bay.

They discuss the state of student mental health on college campuses, including what's driving increased demand for support, how counseling centers are adapting under strain and why student experiences vary so widely across different contexts and identities. The conversation also examines where institutions are still falling short—and what a more comprehensive approach to campus mental health could look like. 

Thank you to our partners at Strada for sponsoring this episode.

Sara Custer, editor in chief at Inside Higher Ed, speaks with Andrew Delbanco, the Alexander Hamilton Professor of American Studies at Columbia University and the president of the Teagle Foundation, about how humanities-based general education courses can provide short and long-term benefits to students – from ethical questions on the job to deeper self-reflection throughout life. He also argues that a core education is one of the rare ideas that could find advocates across the political spectrum.

Thank you to our partners at Strada for sponsoring this episode. 

In this episode of The Key, Inside Higher Ed’s news and analysis podcast, IHE’s student success reporter Joshua Bay joins editor in chief Sara Custer. They discuss the trends in student success that have caught Joshua’s eye including libraries and AI literacy, workforce readiness and tackling loneliness. He shares case studies from programs that are making a difference for students in and outside of the classroom. He also gives a sneak peak of his new project.

Thanks to our partners at Strada for sponsoring this episode.

Inside Higher Ed’s editor in chief Sara Custer is in the studio with news editor Katherine Knott and federal policy reporter Jessica Blake to hear the latest about movements on The Hill and in the White House affecting higher ed.

On the agenda:  the interagency agreements between the Department of Education and agencies across the federal government are the latest efforts by officials to close the department. Meanwhile, the department’s plans to allow some graduate programs access to higher federal loan caps over others attracted more than 80,000 public comments. And accreditation is back in the news with an eventful NACIQI meeting and the run up to negotiated rulemaking.

Sonya Christian is chancellor of California Community Colleges, the largest higher ed system in the country with 116 institutions and 2.2 million students. The sheer size of the system makes every initiative an exercise in scale. In this episode of The Key, Sonya speaks with Inside Higher Ed’s editor in chief Sara Custer about the governor’s proposed $15 billion investment in the system as well as her team’s efforts to use AI to create a credit for prior learning framework for all 116 colleges and why she thinks the institutions in her system should be creating more four-year degrees.

Last month the Congressional Budget Office projected an $11.5 billion shortfall in Pell funding by fiscal year 2027. The program provides need-based federal financial aid for more than 30 percent of American college students. Part of the funding problem is that Congress made getting aid easier without appropriating more money to cover the increase in students gaining access.

Finding a solution requires out of the box thinking that creates sustainable funding without limiting opportunity for first-generation students, according to this week’s guest, Kristin Hultquist, the founder and CEO of HCM strategies and an expert in higher education policy and strategy development. In this episode of The Key, Hultquist speaks with Inside Higher Ed’s editor in chief Sara Custer about what a long-term funding strategy for a modern Pell Grant program could look like.

Thank you to our partners at the Gates Foundation for sponsoring this episode. 

Robert Zemsky is a pioneer in market analysis of higher education and served as the founding director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Institute for Research on Higher Education, one of the country's leading public policy centers specializing in educational research and analysis. In this episode of The Key, Zemsky speaks with Inside Higher Ed's editor in chief Sara Custer about his biggest project yet: championing three-year bachelor's degrees in the U.S. 

He argues that higher education is seeing "product rejection" from students and that three-year degrees are the solution. But Bob is careful not to be proscriptive about how colleges develop shorter programs. His message to educators is: try it, you might like it.