Attainment & Innovation

Austin Community College wants its students to develop an entrepreneurial mindset as a marketable skill, regardless of their program of choice. ACC Provost Charles M. Cook discusses how the college makes that happen in a new post from the Association of Chief Academic Officers.

While higher education in the 21st century faces a number of challenges, there are a number of innovators changing the sector in a classic American way. Andrew Shean, chief academic officer at National University System Online, looks at five that are leading the way.

Four higher education leaders look at College Unbound’s learner-centered, student-driven approach to higher education and the institution’s 10-year journey through regional accreditation.

Johan E. Uvin, president of the Institute for Educational Leadership and former acting assistant secretary under the Obama administration for the Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education, writes that College Unbound is likely going to be one of the few innovation breakthroughs in higher education.

In 2015, Robert L. Carothers joined the board of College Unbound after stepping down from serving as the president at the University of Rhode Island for 18 years. Most of the students came thinking of themselves as having failed, he writes, but College Unbound “taught them to reframe failure and to see that their lives had been about learning, even if they could not see it.”

David A. Bergeron, senior fellow for postsecondary education policy at the Center for American Progress and formerly of the Department of Education’s Office of Postsecondary Education, considers how College Unbound works to reconcile the goal of greater access for older adults with the lack of meaningful outcomes.