What if Colleges Experimented at the Edges?

"In her book Hope in the Dark, writer and activist Rebecca Solnit observes that transformation starts in the margins. The book explores social movements throughout history, but the notion that mainstream beliefs grow from fringe ideas once thought to be outrageous is familiar to anyone who has watched change happen. Hope, she says, lives in the dark around the edges."

"He cited his research that found 25 percent or more of colleges and universities lost at least a quarter of their first-year students in the transition to their sophomore year. "In any other business that would be known as product rejection," Zemsky says. His solution to higher ed's "product problem" is the three-year degree. "American higher ed isn't going to change unless we change the product, and this is the most [promising] way out there at the moment," he said."

Transformation often begins at the margins where fringe ideas can become mainstream. Colleges face extreme stress from high costs, low public trust, shifting market demands, political pressure, and the impact of artificial intelligence. Research finds many institutions lose at least a quarter of first-year students in the transition to sophomore year, a gap likened to product rejection. A three-year degree is proposed as a product change to improve outcomes. An exchange initially working with ten schools now includes nearly sixty institutional members experimenting with three-year degree models. Supporters argue shorter programs can improve costs, accessibility, and student progression.

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