At the 2025 ASU+GSV Summit, Lumina Foundation President and CEO Jamie Merisotis gave a LightningX keynote on increasing the value of higher education.
In conversation with veteran journalist Paul Fain, he outlined the shift from higher education’s focus on access to the “attainment era,” when the percentage of Americans with college degrees or credentials increased from 38 percent to 55 percent.
Now the stakes are even higher: Today’s economy demands a more highly skilled workforce, and higher education needs to shore up public trust amid rising concerns about college costs and relevance. This leads to the next era, with a big goal focused on value: By 2040, 75 percent of adults in the U.S. labor force will have college degrees or other credentials of value, leading to economic prosperity.
Watch the video of Merisotis and Fain discussing how higher education is moving beyond counting degrees to ensure that every credential provides real, measurable value in the workforce and in life.