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.
Small religious schools in rural states are shutting down at an accelerating rate, a fate St. Ambrose University and Mount Mercy University are attempting to avoid.
The two universities are among the many religiously affiliated colleges that disproportionately serve rural America and are facing declining enrollment and financial challenges. The troubles threaten to further diminish access to higher education for rural students, who say they appreciate their colleges' personal touch and religious values.
Like many in her generation, Ally Wilkinson demands that her job allow for life balance and overall wellness, including time for exercise and socializing. When she tells her bosses she has a class or a meeting outside of work, for example, they tell her to do what she needs to do. Even so, she says, “They honestly get annoyed.”
Wilkinson and other new college graduates are starting careers at a time of sharp generational disconnect over how the workplace should operate and how younger employees should inhabit it. In response, many colleges are rewriting the way they prepare students for jobs—and life.
To improve college access and completion, researchers want the state of California to consider a major—and highly controversial—overhaul of its Master Plan for Higher Education that merges the state’s three public higher education systems into one mega-university.
The bold proposal, detailed in a report from California Competes, says merging the systems would eliminate transfer problems and make it easier for students to enter, succeed, and finish college, among other benefits.
As Pennsylvania State University’s Board of Trustees prepares to decide the fate of seven of its 19 Commonwealth Campuses where enrollment has collapsed over a decade, faculty, lawmakers, and some board members are questioning the university’s commitment to the state and say administrators haven’t been transparent about their decision-making process.
Penn State’s Board of Trustees met last week in a private executive session but did not vote on the plan. They’re expected to do so later this week.
Hardly a day passes without news of the Trump administration’s latest plans for higher education. The most punitive measures have, so far, been focused on the nation’s wealthiest and most selective research institutions, which serve a small percentage of the nation’s undergraduates and control a disproportionate share of endowment wealth.
Still, campus leaders at community colleges and four-year public regional and private institutions—representing the vast majority of higher ed—say they do see impacts of President Trump’s policies. Fear, particularly about the future of financial aid and immigration crackdowns, is pervasive.
Since President Trump took office, higher education policy has increasingly been driven by executive orders rather than congressional action.
In this interview, James Kvaal, former Under Secretary of Education under the Biden Administration, and Preston Cooper of the American Enterprise Institute discuss this reality, as well as the stalled reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, cuts to the U.S. Department of Education, the future of international students at American colleges, and more.
