Ep. 189: How the Three-Year Degree Could Save Higher Ed With Robert Zemsky

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.

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Ep. 189: How the Three-Year Degree Could Save Higher Ed With Robert Zemsky is an episode from The Key with Inside Higher Ed by insidehighered.

This episode is 39:39 long.

This episode was published on Feb 19, 2026.

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