--- title: Five Best Ideas: How to Make College More Affordable description: An open-source drive to make college more affordable, the war for the soul of U.S. foreign policy and more. canonical: https://time.com/4643124/college-more-affordable/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-23T17:00:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:59:09.523Z article:section: Ideas og:title: How to Make College More Affordable og:description: And four more of today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4643124/college-more-affordable/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How to Make College More Affordable twitter:description: And four more of today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # How to Make College More Affordable > Sponsored content. 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A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Jan 23, 2017 5:00 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Jan 23, 2017 5:00 PM UTC **1\.** [**To fight inequality on campus, this university found a way to make textbooks affordable.**](https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/affordable-course-materials-initiative-reduces-costs-students) By Bettye Miller at the _University of California, Riverside_ **2\.** [**The struggle for the soul of American foreign policy begins now.**](https://warontherocks.com/2017/01/the-struggle-for-the-soul-of-american-foreign-policy-has-begun/) By Hal Brands at _War on the Rocks_ **3\.** [**AI software is being used to make even smarter AI.**](https://www.technologyreview.com/s/603381/ai-software-learns-to-make-ai-software/?set=603406) By Tom Simonite in _MIT Technology Review_ **4\.** [**Covering Trump might put the news industry on the path to a sustainable business model.**](http://www.niemanlab.org/2017/01/newsonomics-trump-may-be-the-news-industrys-greatest-opportunity-to-build-a-sustainable-model/) By Ken Doctor in _Nieman Lab_ **5\.** [**How corruption works will surprise you.**](https://psmag.com/we-dont-gradually-glide-into-corrupt-behavior-we-jump-head-first-1b69ae699fec#.vrfluch5r) By Tom Jacobs in _Pacific Standard_  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4643124/college-more-affordable/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4643124/college-more-affordable/"},"headline":"How to Make College More Affordable","datePublished":"2017-01-23T17:00:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:59:09.523Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4643124/college-more-affordable/","keywords":["Innovation","Foreign Policy","corruption","Inequality","News","AI"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4643124/college-more-affordable/","name":"How to Make College More Affordable"}}]}] ```