The Program Sharing Model: How Rize Education’s Collaborative Approach Expands Access to Cutting-Edge Majors and Career-Aligned Learning
Small private colleges face rising costs and employer skepticism about degree value, prompting institutions to seek new curriculum models. Rize Education's program-sharing approach allows smaller colleges to offer career-aligned, cutting-edge majors by pooling resources across partner institutions. The model aims to expand student access to job-ready programs without requiring each institution to build expensive offerings from scratch.
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Key takeaways
Small private colleges are under financial pressure and struggling to keep curriculum current with employer demands.
Rize Education's collaborative program-sharing model lets institutions offer high-demand majors they could not sustain independently.
The approach prioritizes career alignment and experiential learning to improve graduate outcomes and institutional relevance.
Small private colleges are facing unprecedented pressures: rising instructional costs, shrinking budgets, and mounting skepticism about the return on investment of a four-year degree. At the same time, employer demand for job-ready talent is accelerating, creating urgency for institutions to modernize curriculum and increase access to experiential learning. According to Rize Education CEO Kevin Harrington, more than 60% of a college’s operating budget is tied to the traditional classroom model—a structure increasingly misaligned with today’s market realities.
How can institutions cut instructional costs, expand high-demand academic programs, and still deliver meaningful, career-aligned learning experiences?
signals in higher ed host Darin Francis welcomes Kevin Harrington, the co-founder and CEO of Rize Education, for a deep dive into how program sharing and employer-embedded experiential learning are helping over 120 institutions overcome these challenges. The conversation spans Rize’s origins, the evolution of online openness post-COVID, the employer engagement pipeline, curriculum development, and the future of modular experiential learning opportunities.
Key highlights from the conversation…
- Program sharing as a new business model: How small colleges are leveraging a shared curriculum model to reduce costs, expand offerings, and strengthen ROI for students.
- Experiential learning as retention and recruitment strategy: Why early exposure to real-world assignments improves student confidence, persistence, and enrollment outcomes.
- Employer partnerships at scale: How Rize sources practitioners from companies like Google, Meta, and growing startups to keep curriculum fresh and workforce-aligned—and why practitioners volunteer to participate.
Kevin Harrington is the co-founder and CEO of Rize Education, where he leads initiatives that make higher education more affordable, scalable, and workforce-aligned. His background includes serving as Assistant to the President for Innovation at Adrian College, helping design and implement new academic models. Earlier in his career, he worked as a real estate private equity analyst at Blackstone and co-founded Insidr Sports, gaining experience in operational leadership, market analysis, and mission-driven program development.
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About the author
With 20 years of experience at the intersection of higher education and edtech, Darin Francis brings a wealth of knowledge and a deep passion for driving meaningful change in the sector. Having led teams, crafted go-to-market (GTM) strategies, and worked closely with institutions, Darin is uniquely positioned to help edtech companies navigate the complexities of U.S. and Canadian higher education. Darin Francis, based in Detroit, MI, US, is currently a Managing Partner and CEO at Harbinger Lane Consulting.
