Lumina Foundation is working to increase the share of adults in the U.S. labor force with college degrees or other credentials of value leading to economic prosperity.
Students who enrolled in college but left without earning a degree or certificate number well over 43 million people in the United States, including some 37 million working-age adults under 65. For many institutions, re-engaging these students is a top priority to help strengthen the workforce and increase postsecondary attainment rates.
New research from Trellis Strategies offers a closer look at why these students leave—and what might bring them back. The findings suggest stopping out is driven more by life circumstances outside of students’ control than academic performance. This includes financial hardship, work conflicts, and caregiving responsibilities.
Colleges’ control over how prospective students find them online—and whether they find them at all—is tenuous. This assertion has never been more true than it is now, with the emergence of artificial intelligence in the search process.
Nearly half of high schoolers surveyed last fall said they use AI-supported resources to research colleges, leaving institutions to ask how they can show up in those tools. How, for example, can an AI overview accurately reference them when a student asks about reputable degree programs? And how can they become a name a chatbot spits out when a student asks about colleges in a certain geographic area with vibrant resident life or high career-placement rates?
The conservative war against higher education has been unfolding in dramatic fashion in Florida. In 2023, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took aim at New College of Florida, a small liberal arts school in Sarasota. What followed was a hostile takeover.
The new film, "First They Came for My College," now documents those efforts and their effects on students and faculty. In this interview, the film's director, Patrick Bresnan, and Amy Reid, a former New College professor and director of the gender studies program, discuss the film and how students there must now confront a new reality.
American higher education is approaching a structural demand shock. In many parts of the country, the pipeline of traditional-age students is softening, and institutional business models built around predictable cohorts of recent high school graduates will be forced to adapt.
Experts say the likely responses are not mysterious. Institutions can compete harder for a smaller pool of 18-year-olds. They can reduce offerings and capacity to match declining revenue. Or they can expand into the segment that is both substantial and underserved: adult learners seeking degree completion, career transitions and short-cycle credentials aligned with labor market opportunity.
Thurka Sangaramoorth is the daughter of immigrants who fled civil war in Sri Lanka and came to the United States with very little. Her parents wanted one thing for her: economic security. They did not care what she studied, as long as it led to opportunities that were not available to them.
As a first-generation college student, Sangaramoorth did not plan to major in anthropology. It was a course she took because it fit her schedule, not because she sensed where it might lead. However, it ultimately changed everything for her future.
A Valley nonprofit is tackling two of the most consequential obstacles facing single parents—housing and education—at the same time. Phoenix Scholar House officially opened its doors last week. It is the first community of its kind in Arizona. The affordable housing is built specifically for single parents pursuing a college degree.
Residents acquire more than just a roof over their heads. Childcare, education support, and career development are all part of the package. The housing community is designed to help parents stay in school without having to choose between their kids and their future.
