This President Says Tradition Shouldn’t Feel Like Regulation
Melik Khoury is the rare college president whose essay about higher ed went viral. He argued that while college leaders and professors tell...
Radio and PodcastLive Radio & Podcasts
Education
Future U Podcast
Jeff Selingo and Michael Horn discuss what’s next for higher ed and talk with the newsmakers you want to hear from most.
Episodes
20 of 240 episodes
New Formula for Success: Location, Location, Location
A donor recently gave $3 billion to Carnegie Mellon University, in part to build a new campus in Florida. It’s just the latest example of co...
Reporters Roundtable: Colleges Must Face Hard Truths
For this season’s roundtable with leading higher ed reporters, Jeff and Michael focused around a key question: What are insiders at colleges...
Live from Google: AI Is About People, Not Just Tech
Universities can build all the AI infrastructure they want, but if faculty aren't on board, none of it lands in the classroom. Recent survey...
Live from Google NYC: AI, Now What?
Higher ed has spent four years managing AI through policies, restrictions, and isolated pilots. That approach bought time, but is time runni...
Colleges Face New Pressures to Define Themselves
We’re kicking off our tenth season of Future U. And as a new school year gets underway, Jeff and Michael reflect on a slew of pressing issue...
A Playbook for College Programs in Prisons
We’ve been wondering how prison education programs have grown since the reinstatement of Pell grants for incarcerated learners a couple of y...
Season 9 Wrap-Up: Why Mission Matters More Than Ever
It’s a time of change in higher education. Jeff and Michael look back on what they learned over the course of this ninth season of Future U...
Athletics Departments Have Become ‘Shadow Universities’
The college athletics arms race has created a complex financing puzzle for many institutions. That has led athletics departments to become a...
Higher Ed 101: Inside the Process of Closing a College
Closing down a college turns out to be a big job. For this episode, Jeff and Michael talk with a specialist on the complex and emotional pro...
The College Where Funding Follows Students’ Earnings, Not Enrollment
Most public colleges get state funding based on “seat time,” — how many students are sitting through classes. Over a decade ago, leaders at...
Cutting Degrees That Don’t Add Value
There’s a growing movement to make sure colleges offer ‘degrees of value,’ meaning that offerings lead to higher-paying jobs for graduates t...
The University President Who Isn’t Afraid of Speaking Up
These days colleges are under fire from the Trump administration and critics on multiple fronts. Dartmouth's president, Sian Beilock, is one...
The Busts in Buildings, AI, and College Presidencies
As winter thaws and spring arrives, Jeff and Michael reflect on six big issues facing higher education. First up, why they think the campus...
The Sports Betting Madness on College Campuses
It’s March Madness, a prime time for college sports – and for sports betting. Some two-thirds of college students now bet on sports, and the...
How AI Could Transform, or Replace, the LMS
For 30 years now, colleges have relied on the Learning Management System, or LMS, as a key portal for professors and students to teach and l...
Higher Ed 101: Tenure Explained
Tenure is a defining feature of U.S. higher education, but these days the practice is in decline and under attack by critics. On this episod...
Will a Flood of Credentials Threaten the Four-Year Degree?
Colleges and other providers have flooded the market with non-degree credentials in the past decade. But a recent analysis shows that only o...
Inside the Role of College Trustees During Turbulent Times
College trustees consider more than just the monetary policies of universities. And former Brown University trustee Lauren Zalaznick is out...
Is Grade Inflation Deflating Trust in Schools?
To kick off 2026, Jeff and Michael weigh in on some key higher ed issues making headlines these days, starting with a deep dive into grade i...