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Dear Reader,

I’ve covered a wide range of topics over 25 years at The Chronicle of Higher Education: technology, academic libraries, college finance, sustainability, the relevance of the curriculum, the success of students, and their path to a career after college. In the past, the assumptions and practices governing these topics seemed relatively straightforward.

Today, they seem fraught with other more complex, and perhaps more urgent, questions: What, and who, is college for? How can we sustain higher education? And how is it tied to the future of the nation?

I’m tackling these topics in The Edge, our longstanding newsletter about innovation in higher education, which will now run every week.

As colleges continue to grapple with issues of access, affordability, viability, and the ever-shifting priorities of students and the public, The Edge will focus on how institutions are responding to these pressures in new ways — with approaches that go beyond adopting a new gadget or tech tool.

I’m interested in the people and institutions truly thinking differently about the fundamental questions related to how people learn, and what colleges do and should be.

Now and then, I will also explore some of the ideas laid out in my new book, Hacking College: Why the Major Doesn’t Matter — and What Really Does, and how various institutions are adapting those ideas to their own campuses.

Every other week, I'll bring you a deeply reported column about how the sector is changing. On the off weeks, I'll share my analysis of various resources and readings about the sector. My goal is to bring readers fresh insights and food for thought. Sign up here.

I’d love to hear about what you think I should examine in The Edge. You can reach me at scott.carlson@chronicle.com.

Thank you for reading.

Sincerely,

Scott Carlson
Senior Writer
The Chronicle of Higher Education