President Rodney K. Rogers addresses global audience on Bowling Green State University’s “game-changing” approach to the student experience

Rogers delivered keynote remarks to nearly 1,000 higher education leaders at the 2025 ABET Symposium

“It’s too bad college gets in the way of learning.”

That was the message Bowling Green State University’s President Rodney K. Rogers heard from his son after his first semester in college at Bowling Green nearly 10 years ago. Rogers, who was then provost at BGSU, said it wasn’t what a parent or senior leader in higher education wanted to hear. So, he set his sights on changing it.

Reframing the college experience was the central message of Rogers’ keynote remarks at the 2025 ABET Symposium in San Diego, California. As a global quality assurance organization, ABET focuses on the accreditation of academic programs, recognition of credentials and assessment of student learning. ABET supports excellence in education worldwide, with services and global partnerships that help equip professionals to confidently face the future.

In Rogers’ message to nearly 1,000 leaders in higher education at the annual symposium, he emphasized the critical need for higher education to rethink its approach, given the rapidly declining trust in higher education and the complex, and often conflicting, expectations from key stakeholders, including students, parents, employers, elected representatives and the public.

“As a global community, we are experiencing rapidly changing technologies with tools like AI, and constant access to an ever-evolving stream of information and knowledge – all at a rate of change that is disrupting our model of higher education,” said Rogers. “Meanwhile, the criticisms are mounting that college is too expensive, students incur too much debt, it takes too much time, it’s not a very good value, you don’t need a degree anymore.

“At Bowling Green, we leaned in on the disruption and asked ourselves some tough questions. How can we better our value? Ultimately, we approached the challenges by emphasizing learning and truly empowering the student to navigate their college experience, versus completing a checklist of requirements, maximizing all that a comprehensive university like Bowling Green has to offer from day one.”

Reframing the student experience

In 2020, Rogers introduced Life Design at BGSU, a program modeled after one he discovered at Stanford that uses design thinking – a widely utilized tool in the business world to solve problems – and brought it to scale at Bowling Green, connecting students with the framework and support to navigate college and ultimately, their career.

In the years since its launch, Bowling Green has seen record undergraduate enrollment, record student success, record giving, and been ranked the No. 1 public university in Ohio for the student experience by the Wall Street Journal, all while tracking declining student debt and shorter time to graduation.

When planning for their annual symposium, ABET leaders looked to Rogers to deliver a keynote to address the symposium’s theme, “Lifelong Learning.”

“Dr. Rogers challenged us to reframe how we think about education—not just as a means to a job, but as a lifelong journey of discovery,” said Dr. Michael Milligan, CEO of ABET. “Quoting Abigail Adams, he reminded us that great minds are shaped in times of challenge. His vision of 'learning to learn to learn' captured the essence of our symposium’s theme and reinforced what ABET stands for: preparing learners not just for today’s careers, but for a lifetime of meaningful impact.”

In addition to the keynote, Rogers participated in a series of breakout sessions for leaders from universities across the nation and around the world to dive deeper into how Bowling Green State University reframed the student learning experience.

“As a proud BGSU alumna, I knew Dr. Rodney Rogers would bring a powerful and personal perspective to our theme of lifelong learning," said Dr. Amanda Taylor, senior director of global communication and marketing with ABET. "He was originally approached to be our keynote as under President Rogers’ leadership, BGSU has emphasized the importance of lifelong learning and workforce readiness. President Rogers’ keynote reminded us that the true value of education isn’t just in earning a degree, but in cultivating a mindset of endless curiosity. He deeply resonated with our audience and reignited a passion for learning that we hope every participant carried home with them. Rogers delivered—and then some.”

Learning how to learn

Rogers said in some ways, the solution to the complex issues facing higher education value is hidden in plain sight: focusing on learning, not just earning, a degree.

“When we support our students in learning to learn, they become lifelong learners who can approach complex issues with curiosity and the knowledge of how to learn,” Rogers said. “With rapidly evolving technologies, simply training for a job isn’t enough. How do we even know if that job will still exist in 10, or even five years? When students learn how to learn, they’ll be prepared for a lifetime of careers.”

As a first-generation college student from a small, rural community in Ohio, Rogers said he has felt personally invested in ensuring students get the most out of their college experience.

Rogers majored in music as an undergraduate and later became a practicing CPA for more than a decade. He went on to consult with global organizations, including Nike and Wendy’s Inc., before returning to higher education to pay it forward.

“Higher education changed my life,” said Rogers. “As a kid, I never imagined I’d be able to travel the world, even become a college president. It is only now that I can reflect on my experiences and realize that I needed to constantly learn new skills and develop new competencies. This was not something intentionally taught or fostered, but more passively obtained.”

Throughout his career in higher education, first teaching business courses, and later as dean and provost, Rogers attempted to foster a student-first approach.

“I was involved in developing programs for faculty to evolve teaching pedagogies and competency model approaches, which were great in creating an ecosystem that can educate students with amazing results, but they were driven by ‘us’,” Rogers said. “My ah-ha moment came when I realized we needed to empower the student to take ownership of their educational journey by teaching them tools to navigate the ecosystem that we created for them.”

With a nearly $15 million private gift, Bowling Green was able to take Life Design from a prototype stage to a broad scale, now offering it to every student who wants to participate in the program. Students work with college coaches as they transition to college, thinking critically about why they are in college, identifying their interests, understanding how they learn and connecting with peers, faculty, staff, alumni and the community. They apply the same tools when they begin to transition to career, working with career coaches in making connections with professionals and industry leaders, identifying co-op and internship opportunities, and ultimately a first job in their lifetime of careers.  

“When people – especially parents and business leaders – hear about this program, they almost always say they wish they would have had it when they were in college. This has been a game-changer for Bowling Green, and I believe it could be a game-changer for higher education.”

The timing has never been more critical, according to Rogers.

“Higher education has been one of the single-greatest differentiators for the United States, as opposed to many other countries around the world, because we have, historically, cast a large net,” said Rogers. “It is hard – impossible even – to predict the future of an 18-year-old. Who will go on to start the business, find the cure, invent the technology? Higher education must evolve to regain trust and ensure future generations have access to what has historically made America one of the most innovative leaders in the world - education.”