Doug Lederman

When colleges close, they leave sprawling facilities behind. Some are acquired by other colleges or converted into housing, K–12 schools or businesses. Others fall into disrepair.

Could we create metro-area councils to better organize the work that postsecondary providers do for their communities’ learners, employers and citizens?

Improving credit transfer and learning mobility will make it easier for people to game the system. But that risk is outweighed by the far larger number of students it will help.

Defining programs solely by graduates' earnings isn't ideal, but it's where we are. A new report shows that it can be done, and how.

Congress may intervene to prop up an enterprise that has long since lost its way. It would be better to let the market work and force colleges to make hard choices about values and money.

The public doubts the value of what colleges are providing. That could change if institutions proved that students actually develop the capabilities and skills we promise them.

Past efforts have failed because of tension over whether they're for us (colleges) or them (our overseers). Let's try again so colleges can prove they're giving students what we promise them.

Higher education must prove to the public that students are ready for work and life. Here's how we might do that.

Silicon Valley titans announce another in a line of purported college killers, many of which have flopped. I'll still bet on traditional institutions—if they respond to changing expectations.

The false binary of degrees vs. skills-based hiring ignores the reality that employers and academics both care first and foremost that people know how to learn.