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Strategies to Help Adult Learners Re-Enroll and Graduate

Release Date: 06/24/2025

Empathy in Higher Education Leadership Without Losing Your Edge

Changing Higher Ed

Empathy is easy to talk about and harder to practice when the pressure is high. In higher education, leaders are often navigating conflict, fatigue, and urgency, which is exactly when empathy gets misread as weakness instead of treated as a leadership competency. In this episode of the , speaks with and founder of , about building empathy as a practical skill leaders can use without surrendering standards or authority. Parson breaks empathy down into usable behaviors, including perspective-taking, emotional self-management, and question framing that reduces defensiveness. The discussion also...

The Case for a Chief Enrollment Management Officer in Higher Education

Changing Higher Ed

In this episode of the , Dr. Drumm McNaughton speaks with , assistant dean of Extended Learning and director of the Emeritus Institute at Saddleback College, one of the nation’s highest-performing community colleges. The conversation focuses on why enrollment challenges persist even at strong institutions and how treating enrollment as a shared responsibility—rather than a system with clear executive ownership—creates fragmentation across admissions, student services, academics, and outcomes. Dr. Predoehl explains the Chief Enrollment Management Officer concept and why a cabinet-level...

How Stevens Tech Became One of the Strongest Transformation Stories in Higher Education

Changing Higher Ed

Institutional transformation in higher education is often described in broad terms. At Stevens Institute of Technology, describes transformation in operational terms: disciplined strategic planning, academic realignment, and year-after-year execution systems that produced what Dr. Drumm McNaughton calls the Stevens Miracle. In this episode of the Changing Higher Ed podcast, Dr. Drumm McNaughton speaks with Dr. Nariman Farvardin, President of Stevens Institute of Technology, about how Stevens achieved sustained success since he became president in 2011. Under Dr. Farvardin’s leadership,...

Higher Education 2026 Planning and Lessons Learned from 2025 Predictions

Changing Higher Ed

Higher education enters 2026 under conditions that are no longer hypothetical. In this 8th annual end-of-year episode of the Changing Higher Ed® podcast, Dr. Drumm McNaughton is joined by Tom Netting of TEN Government Strategies to review how the predictions made at the end of 2024 played out during the 2025 operating year and what those outcomes mean for institutional planning in 2026. Rather than offering speculative forecasts, this episode uses 2025 as a calibration year. When predictions materialize, they remove ambiguity. They clarify which pressures are structural, which risks persist,...

Strategic Insights from the 2025 AAC&U Employer Survey: What Employers Want From Higher Education

Changing Higher Ed

In this episode of the Changing Higher Ed® podcast, Dr. Drumm McNaughton speaks with Dr. Ashley Finley, Vice President of Research and Senior Advisor to the President at the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), about the findings of the and what they reveal about employer expectations for higher education. Based on nearly 20 years of longitudinal research, the 2025 survey challenges many of the dominant public narratives about the value of college. Employers continue to express strong confidence in higher education, place equal importance on workforce preparation...

Higher Education Communication Strategy Under Political Pressure and Crisis Risk

Changing Higher Ed

Higher education communication is no longer a marketing function. It is a strategic discipline shaped by political pressure, governance risk, and real-time public scrutiny. In this episode of the , speaks with , Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Americas at , about how university presidents and boards must rethink how communication functions inside their institutions under today’s crisis-driven conditions. Drawing on more than two decades of enterprise and higher education communications leadership, Maffei explains why internal communication now determines external...

How Higher Ed Leaders Can Take Back the Public Narrative

Changing Higher Ed

Higher education is facing a growing disconnect between and the realities of campus life. In this episode of the , speaks with , CNN political analyst, filmmaker, and director of , about how institutions can reclaim their narrative and through authentic human stories. This conversation is especially relevant for presidents, trustees, and senior leaders navigating public skepticism, political pressure, and communication environments where external voices often define higher education’s story. Some of the Topics Covered The forces driving negative public narratives about higher education...

Innovation in Higher Education: How Leaders Build the Capacity to Adapt

Changing Higher Ed

Higher education leaders are being asked to innovate faster than their institutions are built to move. This episode of Changing Higher Ed explores how presidents and boards can change that. Dr. Drumm McNaughton speaks with Erika Liodice, Executive Director of the Alliance for Innovation and Transformation (AFIT), about how institutions can strengthen their innovation capacity through futures thinking, cross-sector insight, and structured team-based planning. Topics Covered: How futures thinking helps leaders anticipate demographic, workforce, and technology shifts Why innovation efforts fail...

Accreditation Trends and WASC Priorities for Student Success

Changing Higher Ed

are shifting under rising accountability pressures, financial constraints, and increased scrutiny of student outcomes. This episode of the features , President and CEO of the WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC), in a strategic conversation with about how institutions can strengthen accreditation readiness and support stronger student success. This episode is essential for presidents, provosts, trustees, and senior leaders responsible for accreditation, mission alignment, evidence systems, governance oversight, and long-term institutional resilience. Topics Covered How...

The Real Cost of Overlooking Teaching Quality in Higher Ed

Changing Higher Ed

Improving how teaching happens in the classroom is one of the most effective ways to increase student retention, stabilize tuition revenue, and strengthen institutional reputation—yet most universities don’t manage it strategically. In this episode of , speaks with , Associate Professor at the University of Iowa and author of The Missing Course, about how teaching quality has fallen outside institutional oversight and what presidents and boards can do to make it a core part of strategic leadership. They explore how governance structures, incentive systems, and faculty preparation create a...

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How Cross-Sector Partnerships Help Adult Learners Return, Persist, and Complete Degrees

With over 41 million adults in the U.S. holding some college credit but no degree, colleges and universities are under pressure to implement effective adult learner enrollment strategies. In this episode of the Changing Higher Ed podcast, Dr. Drumm McNaughton speaks with Malik Brown, President and CEO of Graduate Philadelphia, about how institutions can re-engage students who have stopped out through cross-sector partnerships that support enrollment, retention, and degree completion.

Drawing on their real-world experience in higher education and workforce development, McNaughton and Brown discuss how adult learners face unique barriers—including affordability, caregiving responsibilities, and outdated enrollment systems—and how intermediaries like nonprofits and employers can play a crucial role in supporting their return to college. The episode outlines practical, replicable strategies that institutional leaders can adopt to build sustainable pipelines for adult learner success.

This conversation is especially valuable for higher ed presidents, provosts, and enrollment leaders tasked with addressing demographic shifts and declining enrollments while aligning with workforce and community needs.

Topics Covered:

The economic and social reasons over 41 million Americans have stopped out
Why adult learners need support from application through graduation
How partnerships with nonprofits, employers, and funders extend institutional capacity
The importance of stackable credentials aligned to labor market needs
Why re-enrollment strategies must include systems changes and credit articulation
Reducing friction in the application, financial aid, and credit transfer processes

Real-World Examples Discussed:

Graduate Philadelphia’s intermediary role connecting students, colleges, and employers
How employers can provide scheduling flexibility and tuition assistance
Use of workforce credentials as an on-ramp to degrees
Models for credit articulation and co-governed partnerships
Community-based navigation support that increases persistence and completion

Three Key Takeaways for Leadership:

Build integrated partnerships that extend institutional reach. Nonprofits, workforce boards, and employers provide essential wraparound services that help adult learners succeed.
Design stackable pathways that start with workforce credentials. These programs allow adults to earn income and confidence while progressing toward a degree.
Fix enrollment systems that weren’t built for adults. From transcript access to unpaid balances, institutions must streamline re-entry to remove avoidable barriers.

This episode provides a framework for institutional leaders seeking actionable strategies to re-enroll adult learners and support them through to graduation.

Recommended For:
Presidents, provosts, chief enrollment officers, board members, continuing education leaders, and workforce development professionals focused on adult learners and institutional sustainability.

Read the transcript:
https://changinghighered.com/adult-learner-enrollment-completion-partnerships/

#AdultLearners #HigherEdEnrollment #WorkforcePartnerships #HigherEducationPodcast #DegreeCompletion #ChangingHigherEd

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