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 than if they hadn’t gone to college. Jeff and Michael talk to a key proponent of the idea, Harrison Keller, the president of the University of North Texas and former Commissioner of Higher Education in Texas. He talks about his experiments to redesign colleges to better match their offerings to the needs of the labor market. This episode is made with support from Ascendium Education Group. Relevant Links “ Building a Talent Strong Texas, ” strategic plan from Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. “ University launches regional partnership for Texas Talent Accelerator to meet industry demands, ” in the North Texas Daily . “ University of North Texas to cut more than 70 programs and minors to trim $45 million deficit, ” in the Texas Tribune.“ Syracuse Drops 84 Majors Including Classics, Ceramics and Italian, ” in The New York Times (gift link). Chapters 0:00 - Introduction 1:30 - A President Trying to Align Degrees to the Labor Market 3:43 - The Elevator Pitch for Ensuring ‘Credentials of Value’ 5:50 - Creating a ‘Hub’ to Analyze Fast-Changing Employment Landscape 9:04 - Is There a Danger of Training Students for Dying Jobs? 12:11 - What Programs at UNT Aren’t Working? 14:14 - What About Majors With Social Value That Don’t Pay Much? 17:21 - How Do State Funding Formulas Need to Change? 20:06 - How Do Universities Need to Change Their Structures? 23:32 - What Should Universities Do to Respond to AI? 28:07 - Sponsor Break 28:46 - Colleges Need to Do More to Connect Liberal Arts to Job Skills 33:14 - The Case for a More-Detailed Mapping of Liberal Arts Skills to Work 41:56 - A Move to Shorter Degree Offerings in Some Fields 45:33 - Eliminating Programs With Low Demand 50:40 - Lightning Round with Harrison Keller Connect with Michael Horn: Sign Up for the The Future of Education Newsletter Website LinkedIn X (Twitter) Threads Connect with Jeff Selingo: Dream School: Finding the College That's Right for You Sign Up for the Next Newsletter Website X (Twitter) Threads LinkedIn Connect with Future U: Twitter YouTube Threads Instagram Facebook LinkedIn Submit a question and if we answer it on air we'll send you Future U. swag! Sign up for Future U. emails to get special updates and behind-the-scenes content.

You can listen to Cutting Degrees That Don’t Add Value online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Cutting Degrees That Don’t Add Value is an episode from Future U Podcast by Jeff Selingo and Michael Horn.

This episode is 00:54:52 long.

This episode was published on Apr 21, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Future U Podcast when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.