Lumina Foundation is committed to increasing the proportion of Americans with high-quality degrees, certificates and other credentials to 60 percent by 2025.
Higher education appeared to oscillate between various crises for a significant portion of 2024. The year kicked off with the botched launch of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, and the disruptions didn’t let up.
But beyond high-profile scandals, resignations, and campus protests, positive change did happen, including the implementation of new programs to improve college access and affordability and big investments in community colleges by some state lawmakers. Here’s a look back at higher education in 2024, month by month.
Few adults have a college degree in the largely rural and mostly Hispanic counties of Texas’ Coastal Bend. That reality has significant implications for the local economy and the earning power of residents.
Many Texans in the Coastal Bend region say they don't have access to quality information to help them pinpoint what skills they need to get quality jobs or what training will help them build a lasting career. It's a troubling issue that Texas leaders and education officials openly acknowledge as a barrier to reaching their postsecondary goals for the state.
Austin O’Campo went from prison to graduating from UC Berkeley—and he did so while living in his car. Now, the 29-year-old resident of San Jose is pursuing law school while completing a fellowship that aims to assist young individuals like him in finding careers.
The fellowship is courtesy of a nonprofit called CURYJ. Pronounced “courage,” the acronym stands for Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice. Among other things, it administers internships and fellowships for young people who have been involved in the legal system—either criminally, as a foster kid, via immigration, or because of school discipline issues. O'Campo explains more in this interview.
Siya Raj Purohit is an education leader, author, and investor who works on education at OpenAI and serves as a general partner at Pathway Ventures, an early-stage fund that invests in the future of learning and work.
On this podcast, Purohit discusses the transformative role of artificial intelligence as a personalized learning tool in education and work and how different types of AI solutions can make learning more accessible and relevant in today's fast-paced world.
Waded Cruzado couldn’t imagine leading Montana State University at Bozeman—a place she thought would be too cold, too forbidding, and too different from her Caribbean roots. In Cruzado’s mind, there was no way a Latina scholar of Spanish language and literature would be a good fit at the STEM-focused school, where nearly 85 percent of students identify as white.
That was 2009, and Cruzado has been Montana State’s president for 15 years—more than twice as long as the average presidential tenure. As she prepares to step down at the end of this academic year, she is leaving behind a university that has grown to record heights in enrollment and retention. For her critics, though, those successes have come at a cost.
The Colorado legislature fires up in just a few weeks. Where does the legislature get all of its ideas? Sometimes they come from young advocates.
Through a 12-week internship with the advocacy nonprofit Young Invincibles, youth participants, ages 18 to 34, research and develop proposals addressing challenges in higher education, health care, and workforce development. They then pitch their ideas to a panel of judges, with the winning pitch added to Young Invincible’s 2025 (and 2026 if needed) policy agenda for the coming legislative session.
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