In this episode, Jeff Selingo and Michael Horn interview Kettering University President Robert McMahan about the institution’s unique mandatory co-op program for all students, which blends classroom learning with full-time professional assignments. McMahan explains how Kettering undergraduates leave with over two years of professional experience and how the co-op model can better fulfill industry needs. Although implementation would require overcoming curricular, ideological, and logistical challenges, Selingo, Horn, and McMahan encourage the expansion of experiential learning—especially as the internship and job markets grow more competitive.
As McMahan reflects, “One of the founders of the institution [Kettering] famously said something to the effect of ‘If we taught if musicians the way we teach engineers, we’d make them take twelve years of music theory before we ever let them touch a piano.’ — which is ridiculous on its face. But in fact, that’s what we do in much of higher education, much of how we educate students.”