IHE editor in chief Sara Custer speaks with Devin Duncan, the student body president at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an incoming junior. Duncan is passionate about making higher ed a better place for the next generation of students and wants to see colleges do more to support students’ complex needs. In this episode, he shares his thoughts about free speech on campus, tenure, what it’s like to be a Black student at a university that has ended all DEI programing and how he thinks higher ed can regain the public’s trust.

In this episode of Voices of Student Success, Inside Higher Ed’s podcast series exploring what really shapes students’ experiences, Sara Weissman, senior reporter at IHE, joins student success reporter, Joshua Bay.

For generations, colleges were largely designed around the idea of an 18-year-old who enrolled straight out of high school, attended full time and followed a relatively linear path to graduation. But today’s students increasingly look different. In this episode, they explore who today’s college students really are, how higher education demographics have changed and why institutions are being challenged to rethink the traditional student model.

This episode features an Inside Higher Ed newsroom discussion about a five-part series on registered apprenticeships. Underwritten by Ascendium, the six-month project saw the team battling hailstorms in Missouri, visiting factories in upstate New York and embedding themselves with learners on the job in South Carolina. What emerged is a clear picture of the American apprenticeship, distinct from decades-old European models, and how higher ed institutions can play a greater role in these pathways to careers.

Editor in chief Sara Custer is joined by Colleen Flaherty, senior editor for special content, senior report Sara Weissman, digital producer Justin Morrison, and Johanna Alonso IHE’s reporter for admissions and enrollment.

Read the full series:

Why and how higher education is leaning into apprenticeships

How apprenticeships and apprentices themselves are changing

A photo essay showing what apprenticeships really look like

Where apprenticeships are benefiting rural learners and their communities

What’s needed to scale apprenticeships?