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.
Higher education is navigating what may be its most turbulent period in decades, confronting a convergence of pressures that are reshaping the very foundations of the enterprise. That is the central message of EAB's Higher Ed State of the Sector 2025-26 report, which paints a sobering portrait of American colleges and universities struggling to find their footing in an era of profound uncertainty.
What EAB describes as "upheaval on four fronts"—external accountability, financial sustainability, market relevance, and institutional agility—amounts to something more fundamental than a difficult stretch of budget cycles or enrollment fluctuations. The report argues that higher education's social contract with the public is being rewritten in real time, driven in large part by the Trump administration's aggressive scrutiny of campuses nationwide.
Disagreement and difference are a natural part of campus life, making it important for colleges and universities to proactively enhance communication skills across their communities.
The City University of New York is taking that goal head-on with its Constructive Dialogue Initiative, which equips students, faculty, and others with practical skills to lead respectful conversations. Launched in 2024, the program at CUNY—the nation’s largest urban public university system, spanning 26 campuses—trains participants to navigate conflict and misunderstanding, build trust and connection, and engage in more intentional conversations.
Project 2025, the influential policy blueprint published by the Heritage Foundation, set a clear agenda for the Trump administration’s sweeping efforts to reform higher education in its first year in office. Now, many people are wondering what comes next.
Heritage’s latest report may offer some insight. One item high on the list: stripping accreditors of their role as gatekeepers of federal funding. The Trump administration has already sought to shake up accreditation by bringing new agencies into the mix, but the Heritage proposal goes much further.
Nearly 44,000 first-generation and low-income students no longer receive assistance with financial aid, tutoring, campus visits, or dual-enrollment courses after a national college-access organization lost federal funding last fall.
It was the first-ever cancellation of grants for TRIO, a federal program that has helped disadvantaged students across the United States enter college and graduate since 1964. While a district court judge recently ruled the Trump administration's move illegal, TRIO staff and advocates say the loss of funds is hindering thousands of students' chances to have a successful future after high school.
More states and colleges are joining the rapidly growing trend toward accelerated bachelor’s degrees. Massachusetts recently became the latest state to signal it would consider pilot proposals for offering undergraduate degrees that students can complete in three years.
The popularity of deliberately designed accelerated programs has been limited by several drawbacks, including a lack of enthusiasm by students themselves, pushback from faculty who see shortened degrees as inferior in quality to traditional BA/BS curricula, and resistance by accrediting agencies. Now, however, those obstacles and sources of skepticism are being replaced by a new enthusiasm for accelerated degrees. Here's why.
Technology has always reshaped work—destroying some jobs, creating others, and transforming most. Artificial intelligence is no exception. The key question is not whether change is coming. It's about whether colleges, employers, state leaders, and others prepare people to thrive within it.
At a recent gathering of The Economic Club of Indiana, Lumina Foundation's Jamie Merisotis delivered a clear message about an AI-driven future. "If we focus on human work—on durable skills, on accessible and affordable education, on stronger partnerships between business and higher education—then this technological shift can expand opportunity rather than narrow it."
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