AKA Review - 05.22.2026

From Inside Higher Ed

Presidents Puzzled on Rebuilding Public Trust in Higher Ed

By Colleen Flaherty

Only 16% of college presidents feel higher ed has been even “moderately effective” in responding to declining public trust. The majority described their responses as PR focused mainly on their school’s value to the community and ROI to students. Other data show that students and families base trust more on affordability. Yet affordability is targeted by fewer than 10% of the presidents. Short conversations with 11 higher ed leaders, highlight their views of what higher ed can do to reaffirm public trust in a way that truly registers. Read this article

From AAC&U and LearningWell Coalition

What Students Value in College

By Dana Humphrey and Ashley Finley

This nuanced, data-based examination of the statement finds that, while a third of students are looking for the often-assumed goal of a good job, similar percent cite intellectual and personal growth and identity formation. Additionally, low-income and 1st gen students are more likely to prioritize personal growth and less likely to cite careers than higher-income peers. Students also views connections to faculty and experiential learning as high value—yet sadly, data also shows that these experiences do not reach the majority of students. Read this article

From Stanford Social Innovation Review

Education for Thriving Careers

By Matt Sigelman

Drawing on his research and that of others, the author argues that an education that prepares students for human thriving must: (1) double down on the liberal arts, (2) expand what’s meant by foundational skills, and (3) raise the bar on proficiency. Based on these, he proposes “a new architecture for schooling” that, critically, considers goals across a lifetime. “These are not only the skills of employability; they are the skills of democratic life,…essential both for functioning workplaces and for functioning republics.” Read this article

From MOD171

Real Hampshire College Has Never Been Tried

By Ethan Ludwin-Peery

“I almost wrote Hampshire a eulogy. But I like this kind of eulogy better.” This initially tongue-in-cheek proposal to buy and recreate Hampshire—values intact but adapted to today’s challenges—ends in a serious analysis of what that would take. Along the way, the writer, a Hampshire grad who later taught there, makes a strong case that Hampshire grads at the school’s peak were those we now bemoan a dearth of in higher ed. A history of and vision for Hampshire born of compelling personal experiences there and broadly in higher ed. Read this article

From The New York Times

What AI Did to My College Class

By Theo Baker

A Stanford senior paints a dark picture of “the first college class of the AI era,” at an institution where “cheating has become omnipresent.” “Money is a big part of it”; AI merely accelerates a trend of education as a secondary goal to “future success, frequently defined as a future windfall.” By now, his conclusion—“higher ed was not equipped for the AI revolution”—feels obvious. This cri de couer hides his own envy beneath a string of bleak anecdotes. After all, “why put all your energy into being a student when…everyone around you is getting rich?” Read this article