Giving Compass' Take:

• Though many believe public confidence in tradition American universities is on the wane, this Education Next post pushes back on the idea, noting recent innovations that point to resilience.

• No doubt the pressure to evolve has made a mark on college and universities across the country. How might donors be part of the solutions?

• Here's why higher ed needs to bridge the app gap to reach students.

Traditional American universities are more resilient — and more innovative — than they appear. It turns out they are evolving all the time, but sometimes in ways that are hard to see from the outside.

Take one recent example of a supposed threat to higher education, artificial intelligence (AI). In October 2018 two new colleges were announced. Both were responses to the emergence of AI, but with radically different approaches.

Foundry College, the startup brainchild of a former Harvard dean, is based on the idea that many jobs will be replaced by machines and new educational models are needed to prepare workers with “middle skills” to complement automation technologies. A rebooted community college, Foundry reimagines the associate’s degree — more than a high school diploma but less than a bachelor’s degree — as a credential of “future-proof” skills.

Days later, MIT announced it was establishing a new college that integrates artificial intelligence research into traditional disciplines, including ethics and public policy, and “reshapes [MIT] to shape the future”.

Read the full article about the obligation to evolve in higher education by Emily J. Levine and Matthew Rascoff at Education Next.