Building a Transformational College for Adult Students: A Conversation with Adam Bush

College Unbound, a small, newly accredited college in Providence, Rhode Island, has been garnering a lot of positive attention lately—with good reason. It serves adult, working, parenting students, just the kind who are generally been ignored or underestimated by American higher education. In contrast to the short-term job training that many leaders believe nontraditional students want and need, CU offers an undergraduate degree grounded in project-based learning, peer cohorts, and a culture of full-throated support. Its graduation rate is around 80%. Its cost is around $5000 a term. Its students passionately love the program.

In this episode, I speak with Provost Adam Bush about CU's program and values, the college's response to the pandemic, and the implications of its model of transformative education not only for adult learners, but for higher ed as a whole.

Along with visiting the College Unbound website, you can learn more by reading:

"Colleges Struggle to Serve Millions of Dropouts. Have These Men Cracked the Code?" (Chronicle of Higher Education, January 16, 2020)

"College Unbound Helps Working Adults Earn Fast Affordable Degrees" (Forbes, April 22, 2019)

The Way Forward is a production of Bringing Theory to Practice; to learn more about our work, visit us at www.bttop.org. Send us your thoughts—and suggestions for future episodes—at info@btop.org. The podcast is produced by Jabari Butler, and Dan Rudin composed our music.