On Campus Podcast – The Future of Higher Education: A CEO’s View on Workforce Readiness, AI, and Research

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1. Introduction and Episode Framing (00:06) The host introduces On Campus with CITI Program, explains the podcast’s educational purpose, and frames the episode around a conversation with Paddy Mullen at the 2026 NCURA Conference.
2. Higher Education Trends: Demographics, Value, and AI (01:10) Ed asks Paddy which higher education trends she is watching most closely, and Paddy highlights enrollment pressures, questions about the value of college, and AI’s impact on students, faculty, and the workforce.
3. Skills Employers Want from College Graduates (03:00) Paddy discusses the importance of creative problem solving, teamwork, project management, group interaction, and students developing a practical understanding of AI, trust, and ethics.
4. Ethics and Trust in Compliance-Focused Work (04:55) The conversation turns to why ethics and trust matter in today’s workforce, including the need for accurate information, secure systems, regulatory reliability, and customer confidence.
5. Advice for Students Entering the Workforce (07:11) Paddy advises students to prioritize connection, onboarding, collaboration, and professional learning, especially in remote or hybrid work environments where relationship-building requires intention.
6. Workplace Readiness and Technology Skills (08:19) Paddy expands on the skills new employees need, including experience with AI, common workplace tools, creative thinking, and the ability to solve problems in practical business settings.
7. Optimism About the Future of Higher Education and Research (09:32) Paddy shares optimism about faculty commitment, student capability, and the potential for new generations to use technology and creativity to solve major scientific, medical, social, and infrastructure challenges.
8. Closing Reflections and Key Takeaways (11:19) Ed reflects on major themes from the episode, including the changing higher education landscape, the continued importance of human skills, and the growing need for ethical decision-making and trust in an AI-driven world.
9. Outro and CITI Program Resources (12:42) The host thanks Paddy Mullen, encourages listeners to visit CITI Program for courses and webinars related to research, ethics, compliance, and higher education, and closes with production credits.

Ed Butch: Welcome to On Campus with CITI Program, the podcast where we explore the complexities of the campus experience with higher education experts and researchers. I’m your host, Ed Butch, and I’m thrilled to have you with us today. Before we get started, I want to quickly note that this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not designed to provide legal advice or guidance. In addition, the views expressed in this podcast are solely those of our guests.

Welcome to On Campus. Today we are recording from the 2026 NCURA Conference in New York City. I’m very excited for today’s special guest, Paddy Mullen, CEO of BRANY, the Biomedical Research Alliance of New York, and CITI Program’s parent company. Paddy has served for 16 years as BRANY’s CEO, and prior to that, founded a consulting and advisory firm focused on the orthopedic sector. Welcome to the pod, Paddy.

Paddy Mullen: Great to be here, Ed, and great to be at this very important conference.

Ed Butch: Yes, thank you. Thank you for taking some time to sit down and speak with me today. I really appreciate it. And really, because On Campus’s focus is really about that kind of on-campus experience of higher education, I really wanted to talk with you about your perspective as a CEO in higher education today. So I guess to start, what higher education trend are you really paying closest attention to right now?

Paddy Mullen: It’s a great question, Ed. And I would say there’s probably a few trends that we’re looking at that are really important. One is the demographics of the eligible students for college has really started to turn. So there’s going to be less students available to go to colleges, which is going to impact a lot of colleges and universities going forward. A lot of colleges are feeling a lot of pressure to answer the question that students are asking is what value am I getting for my educations? Very expensive. And then the third leg of the stool is how is AI impacting A, the college experience? How are colleges responding to that both at the faculty level, at the student level, and how are colleges really training students to enter a workforce that is going to be dominated very heavily by AI in their future?

Ed Butch: Yeah, definitely. I think that value proposition is huge and then the AI piece is definitely big. And I think that really probably feeds in a little bit to my next question, which is the skills that employers are really looking for that colleges maybe aren’t emphasizing enough.

Paddy Mullen: Important question. I think no matter what business you wind up going into, the skills that are really most important in an employee is how can you solve problems creatively? How can you work in teams? And how can you efficiently project manage an activity? I think colleges need to put more emphasis on that with their students going forward. We hear about trends at colleges where students are not even going to class and are kind of taking their class from their dorm room remotely. And I think it’s important that students get into group environments, learn how to interact with groups of people, how to challenge ideas, have great discussions.

So I think those are some of the skills that employers want to see going forward. And then obviously on the AI front, I think that employers overall want to know that college graduates have basic skills related to AI and understanding what AI is really about, although AI constantly is changing. But to have a fundamental understanding of AI and how it can impact workflows and decision making and the trust issues around AI and AI ethics, I think will be important for colleges to be able to emphasize in their students going forward.

Ed Butch: Yeah. And you bring up that ethics piece, which I love because that also leads me into a question about ethics and trust, which is really a through line of BRANY and the many companies under their umbrella. So why are ethics and trust becoming increasingly important in today’s workforce?

Paddy Mullen: Well, there’s a lot of information out there on the internet and in AI searches. Not all that information is accurate. And people are assuming a lot of that information is accurate. And so in the businesses that we have are really businesses that are focused on compliance-related services, whether you’re running a clinical trial or we’re training students and faculty and people working at hospitals and academic medical centers in the newest regulations is our customers want to know that we’re giving them a very accurate experience, applying regulations accurately, training them to be able to apply regulations accurately, doing a good job with helping somebody’s clinical trial get started correctly.

And then that we are delivering our services in an environment that from a security standpoint is totally safe and secure. That their proprietary information, whether we’re dealing with a sponsor or a CRO or an institution’s intellectual property within a clinical trial, that information is safeguarded by us. And I think that tech software, HRP, the CITI Program, BRANY IRB, BRANY Core has done a great job over the past 20 some years enforcing those trust relationships. And I think that we continue to do so in really providing great customer service, but also answers that people can trust in an environment that’s very, very safe.

Ed Butch: And as CEO, you obviously are making some hiring decisions throughout the different companies and things like that. So as students are getting ready to enter the workforce today, what is one piece of advice that you would give to each of those students as they get ready to enter?

Paddy Mullen: I would say don’t necessarily look for a remote job or a job that’s all remote. We are a remote company. We do have some offices and we do encourage people to, if they live near one of our offices, to come into our office. But I think it’s important that new people in the workforce get to onboard in a very efficient way and can learn in an environment that’s easy for them to learn. But there are a lot of great remote companies out there, us included. I think I would encourage new students that are entering the workforce that they find ways if they are working remotely to connect with their fellow colleagues so that they do learn. You don’t want work to be transactional. You want to continue to learn and expand your skillset. And you really do that by interacting with employees, joining group meetings, turning your camera on, really relating to people.

So I do think that’s something that’s really important going forward. And also we hope that most employees come to us having graduated with some general experience with AI, other technologies, ability to use Excel, Adobe, ability to problem solve, creatively think outside the box. So those are some of the things we’re looking for.

Ed Butch: Well, a bit of a controversial take maybe with the no remote work in today’s world. But I would completely agree with you. Obviously up until I joined CITI Program, I was in an office environment and honestly really appreciated being able to be around people that had been there many years prior to me and learning from them. So I really do think that that’s a huge impact on my career and can be for those college students’ career as well as they enter the workforce. So I guess to wrap up here, I just kind of want you to look into the future a little bit. And what would you say makes you optimistic about the future of higher education and research?

Paddy Mullen: Well, I think it’s the commitment of faculty have chosen to go into teaching and remain committed to doing that. And they’re doing that for a reason, and that’s because they believe in the students that are coming through. And I think the students that we see are so much smarter, have more skills than we ever did in our earlier years. And I think that these students have the ability to solve a lot of great problems in the world, whether it’s on a science level, a medical science level, whether it’s related to space, whether it’s related to solving problems with the aging of certain countries and how are we going to deal with people as they get into their 80s and 90s and live an independent life or how do we solve infrastructure problems in the United States?

So I think that we see that our students have a lot of energy these days. And I think there’s a lot of opportunities for them to use technology and their creative thinking skills to solve a lot of bigger problems for the country and also create an environment where we all work together.

Ed Butch: Yeah, agreed. Agreed. Thank you so much. Thank you for taking the time today to sit down with me at NCURA and have this great conversation and get your perspective on higher education today.

Paddy Mullen: Thanks, Ed, for having me, and congratulations to the CITI Program and all their success this year. We appreciate all their hard work.

Ed Butch: Before we wrap up, I want to reflect on a few themes that stood out from this conversation with Paddy. First, higher education is facing a period of significant change. As she noted, institutions are navigating demographic shifts, increasing questions about the value of a college degree, and the rapid rise of AI. At the same time, employers continue to seek skills that go beyond technical expertise, including problem solving, teamwork, communication, project management, and ethical decision-making. Another important takeaway is that while technology continues to reshape education in the workplace, human skills remain essential. Paddy emphasized the importance of learning from others, building relationships, and engaging in collaborative environments. Whether students are in a classroom, participating in campus activities, or beginning their first job, those experiences help develop the professional and interpersonal skills that employees value most. And finally, I appreciated her comments on trust and ethics. In a world where information is increasingly generated, shared, and consumed through digital platforms and AI-powered tools, the ability to evaluate information, act ethically, and build trust may be more important than ever.

For colleges and universities, that means preparing students not only for today’s jobs, but also for the responsibilities that come with leading and making decisions in an increasingly complex environment. Once again, I’d like to thank our CEO, Paddy Mullen, for joining us, and thank you for listening to On Campus. I invite all of our listeners to visit citiprogram.org to learn more about our courses and webinars on research, ethics, compliance, and higher education. I look forward to bringing you more expert guests to discuss what’s happening on campus. Special thanks to our line producer, Evelyn Fornell. Production and distribution support provided by Raymond Longaray and Megan Stuart.