Between Miriam Grodin’s classes, shifts at the student newspaper and work in the campus development office, she’s spent part of the fall semester job shadowing staff at the book publisher tucked behind the stacks in the library.
“Have you learned anything that you didn’t know before about publishing?” Brandeis University Press Director Sue Berger Ramin asked Grodin in a sort of exit interview as they sat in her book-lined office three months into the fall semester.
“Definitely,” Grodin responded, smiling. “Having a conversation with someone who actually works in publishing and finding out the tangible things that they do is just really interesting.”
The 20-year-old junior from Livingston, New Jersey, is double-majoring in English and creative writing. She hopes to become an editor someday but said before job shadowing at the press, she found the process of publishing to be “kind of mystical.”
This program is part of Brandeis’ push to make the world of work a little less mystical, and a lot more accessible to its students. The school is also adding to its ranks of advisors and focusing more on competencies — not just grades — as part of its mission to ensure students graduate with concrete skills that will benefit them in the workplace.
Brandeis President Arthur Levine said that starting next year, each student will have two advisors — one academic, one career — and two transcripts.
“One will have their grades and the courses they took and the other will be a record of what they know — and what they can do,” Levine explained.
For the past year, Levine has been pitching this restructuring he calls “The Brandeis Plan” to faculty, students, alumni and trustees. By and large, he’s garnered positive reception, securing a unanimous endorsement from the board and a $25 million commitment to roll out the changes with a sense of urgency.
“American higher education is really changing dramatically at the moment,” said Levine, who is also the co-author of “The Great Upheaval: Higher Education’s Past, Present, and Uncertain Future.”
“The United States is moving from a national, analog industrial economy to a global, digital knowledge economy,” he said. “Only once before has this country experienced change of this magnitude, during the Industrial Revolution. And that was a time which all of our social institutions got left behind.”
Nationwide, colleges face growing pressure to prove their worth. Recent grads are facing a tight job market and nearly 40% are underemployed, working in jobs that don’t require the degree they just earned.
Levine predicts 20-25% of all colleges in the U.S. will close or merge in the coming years. Longtime higher ed analysts agree, noting midsize, private, tuition-dependent colleges and universities like Brandeis are closer to the financial cliff than the public realizes.
Brandeis, with its roughly $1.4 billion endowment, could have coasted for years, Levine said. But long-term, the current trajectory isn’t sustainable. In 2024, the school made significant cuts and then-President Ron Liebowitz, facing a no-confidence vote from faculty, resigned. With fewer potential domestic and international students, and a sticker price north of $90,000 a year, the school has been discounting more than 60% of its tuition just to fill its seats. “What would people say about Tiffany’s if tomorrow they announced, ‘Hey, we’re having a half-price jewelry sale?’” he asked. “It’s not a mark of quality to have to discount at that level.”
Levine’s dry sense of humor shows up in his office, where a plaque resting on a book shelf reads, “Si hoc legere scis, nimis eruditionis habes,” a Latin phrase that roughly translates to “If you can read this, you are over-educated.”
The higher education joke gets at the heart of The Brandeis Plan. Levine argues colleges have spent decades fixated on credit hours instead of assessing the skills students develop.
“We’re not doing this because we need to survive,” Levine insisted. “We’re doing it because this is the direction higher education needs to go.”
As part of the comprehensive effort, Brandeis is undergoing a broad reorganization, merging its liberal arts departments with graduate schools, creating a Center for Careers and Applied Liberal Arts, and building more direct pathways from coursework to jobs.
Brandeis professors seem to be on board. Nearly 90% of the faculty voted in favor of the plan — a level of consensus rare on college campuses, where professors are often seen as a barrier to change.
“You never see that level of agreement on anything at a university,” said Linda Bui, dean of the new School of Business and Economics, which merges what used to be the International Business School and the Economics Department.
The two academic units already shared a building, seminars and resources. “Combining the two made a lot of sense,” Bui said. “We’re ahead of the curve, so we’re really excited.”
Bui says all these changes will free up resources and help students gain the skills and confidence they really need to go out and get jobs.
“I think [a competency transcript] is a good way to make sure people are on the same level as each other, as well as the competition from people at other schools.”Matt Chafin, student
National higher education leaders are watching Brandeis’ moves closely. Speaking at the National Press Club in September, Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, praised Brandeis and Levine for taking action while many families are questioning whether college still pays off.
“Arthur is going to save higher education, and Brandeis is one of the vehicles that he’s going to use to do that,” Mitchell said.
He noted while many college leaders dislike how the Trump administration has entered the national debate about the role and value of higher education, “there’s some truth in every part of the negative narrative that we’re facing.”
The Brandeis Plan, he said, is “masterful and brilliant” because it reframes the liberal arts for the 21st century.
“General education has become a cafeteria-style menu,” he said, that lets students pick and choose what they want to learn. But Brandeis is flipping that model by first asking about the outcome — “what are the things that an educated person needs to know and be able to do after they graduate?” — then designing the classes to get there.
Brandon Busteed, who runs Edconic, a company that connects students with industry experiences, said more schools should take note of what Brandeis is doing.
“The number one reason why students enroll in higher ed is to get a good or better job,” Busteed said, noting Brandeis is “one of the first examples of a top-tier institution moving in this direction.”
He predicts that if families continue to feel graduates are leaving campus unprepared for the workplace, more liberal arts schools will follow Brandeis’ lead.
Back at Brandeis, senior Matt Chafin from Canton, Massachusetts, says the effort is paying off. He applauds the school’s plan to add a second transcript to track students’ career readiness.
“I think that’s a good way to make sure people are on the same level as each other, as well as the competition from people at other schools,” he said.
Chafin is job shadowing at two financial investment firms in the Waltham area this semester. And he says that experience has added a new dimension to how he views his post-college career.
“It’s opened my eyes to find a career in a job that aligns with what I want to do exactly,” he said.
