College credentials in the digital future

Richard Arum

Therese Cannon

Emily Goligoski

John Katzman

College degrees are fundamental mechanisms by which people are sorted into jobs. The current degree credentialing system developed as a series of independently negotiated compacts between particular schools sharing similar prestige and status: courtesy agreements now being challenged by seismic changes to the political economy of US higher education. How should college credentialing happen in education’s digital future?

This forum assembles four experts who will specify key problems in the current college credentialing system and offer positive new directions for credentialing going forward.

• Richard Arum, NYU, lead author of Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses (Chicago 2011)
• Therese Cannon, former Executive Vice President, Western Association of Schools and Colleges
• Emily Goligoski, Mozilla Open Badges
• John Katzman, founder of Princeton Review, 2U, and Noodle Education.