Gates Foundation Launches Higher Ed Podcast "To A Degree"

What: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced the launch of a new podcast series dedicated to higher education. By 2025, two-thirds of jobs will require education beyond high school — yet half of students who start college don't graduate, and a high-income student is five times as likely to have a degree by age 24 than a low-income student.

The profile of college students is also changing. The majority of students are no longer 18- to 21-year-olds who enroll full-time and live on campus. Rather, the majority of students work while going to college, 40 percent are 25 or older, one-third are first generation college goers, and many are low-income students and students of color.

To A Degree aims to show how higher education must evolve to better support today's college students. The goal of the foundation's Postsecondary Success team is to help more students — especially low-income and first-generation students — graduate at higher rates, with high-quality degrees or certificates at an affordable price.

Who:
Dan Greenstein, director of Postsecondary Success, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Bridget Burns, executive director, University Innovation Alliance
Deborah Santiago, chief operating officer and vice president for policy, Excelencia in Education
Moderator: Casey Green, founding director, The Campus Computing Project

Where:  The podcast is available to stream or download at www.ToADegree.com.

When:  The podcast launched on Thursday, March 30.

Contact:  For more information, please contact Travis Reindl at [email protected] or 202/257-5307.

Featured

  • Tennessee Middle School Completes Health, Life Safety Renovations

    The Giles County Board of Education in Pulaski, Tenn., recently announced that a series of renovation projects has been completed at Bridgeforth Middle School, according to a news release. The district partnered with Wold Architects & Engineers and Brindley Construction to modernize building systems at one of the district’s oldest schools.

  • FGCU Breaks Ground on New Health Sciences Building

    Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) has launched construction on a major new academic facility that leaders say will reshape healthcare education in Southwest Florida for decades to come, according to university news.

  • abstract illustration of school gym

    How the Gymnasium Can Serve as a Model for Learning Space Design

    Multipurpose gyms work because flexibility was built into the brief from the start, not retrofitted later. The same logic applies to academic spaces.

  • Ohio State University Opens 26-Story Hospital

    The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center recently opened in Columbus, Ohio, standing 26 stories and covering 1.9 million square feet, according to a university news release. The project marks ten years of effort and is the university’s largest single-facility construction project ever.