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What does it look like when a “global campus” is truly global—and built for working learners from the ground up? We sit with UMGC president Dr. Greg Fowler to trace a line from faculty boarding planes after WWII to teaching through evacuations, tsunamis, and base alerts, all while keeping one promise: meet students where they are and prove value with real outcomes. Along the way, we dig into credit for prior learning mapped directly to military rank, why time is the enemy of the poor, and how skills-first, competency-based assessment can shorten time to degree without lowering the bar.
Greg shares how UMGC partners with employers to define the skills that matter, then designs assessments that mirror real work—lead teams, teach a class, solve a problem—rather than lean on brittle tests and essays. We explore AI as augmented intelligence: a personal learning assistant that adapts content, flags gaps early, and enables scalable oral checks and simulations. From submarines in port to rural education deserts, we examine what it means to deliver flexible, high-quality learning across 170+ locations and online, with a steady hand through policy shifts and market uncertainty.
If you care about economic mobility, ROI, and restoring public trust in higher ed, this conversation offers a practical playbook: validate experience, personalize support, measure what learners can do, and keep the North Star fixed on better jobs and better lives. Subscribe, share this episode with a colleague wrestling with adult learner design, and leave a review telling us what should count for credit in a skills-first future.

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