Program discontinuation is usually the fight presidents avoid. Fairleigh Dickinson University put a significant slate of program discontinuations and consolidations to a faculty referendum, and roughly 88 percent of the faculty endorsed it. The vote reflects a larger redefinition underway at FDU: a shift from the four-year degree to a university built around lifelong learning.

In this episode of the Changing Higher Ed® podcast, Dr. Drumm McNaughton speaks with Michael Avaltroni, President of Fairleigh Dickinson University and the first FDU graduate to hold the office, about the four-P framework guiding that redefinition: programs, people, partnerships, and place.

Avaltroni explains how FDU is specializing in health, health-adjacent, and professionally focused programs rather than trying to be everything to everyone; designing for five generations of learners on one campus; delivering degrees inside corporations such as Merck, Novartis, Fiserv, and Barclays; and reimagining its campuses as intergenerational "impact cities" that place retirement living alongside student housing.

This conversation is especially relevant for presidents, provosts, and board members weighing program portfolio decisions, partnership strategies, and how to pursue radical change without losing faculty and community trust.

Topics Covered

Why the fundamental model higher education was built for is gone, and the optimistic "but" that follows
The four Ps of the university of the future: programs, people, partnerships, and place
Winning faculty endorsement of program cuts through a data-driven shared governance process
Serving five generations of learners concurrently, from pre-college pathways to retirement
Corporate classrooms, advisory councils, executives in residence, and a learn-while-you-earn platform with health systems
Humanics: preparing a healthcare workforce that is technologically literate, data literate, and human literate

Real-World Examples Discussed

A faculty referendum endorsing a significant slate of program discontinuations by roughly 88 percent
On-site MBA and leadership programs where practitioners, including a VP of HR, team-teach with FDU faculty
Plans to add university-based retirement living alongside student housing on FDU's two New Jersey campuses

Three Key Takeaways for Higher Education Leadership

Know who you are. Be the institution you are called to be, serving the students you are called to serve, not a copy of anywhere else.
Rethink what higher education can be. The time-driven, hours-logged degree has run its course; the strategic question is how to deliver true lifelong learning, at its fullest a subscription-based model for life.
Be bold. Institutions that nibble around the edges risk obsolescence; take a big swing and adjust course, and bring everybody along.

This episode offers a working view of what redefining a university around lifelong learning actually requires: a clear identity, a disciplined portfolio, partners who carry what the institution should not, and governance strong enough to carry hard decisions.

Read the transcript: https://changinghighered.com/fairleigh-dickinson-lifelong-learning-ecosystem/

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