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.
Whether professors are true believers in the promises of artificial intelligence, feel pressured to adapt, or are simply desperate for help, the technology is becoming commonplace in course design.
That’s fueling competing visions of the future. In one version, AI raises the bar, freeing professors from tedious hours of labor so they can spend more time with students and create engaging courses. In another, AI leads to a breakdown in foundational relationships, chipping away at trust and authenticity as professors and students mediate their interactions through an often-unreliable technology.
Until this year, all of the Federal Aviation Administration’s new controllers had been trained at the agency’s official academy in Oklahoma City, a decades-old institution that has struggled lately to produce enough people to helm the nation’s air traffic facilities. But in recent months, nine colleges and universities have started FAA-approved training programs to teach the agency’s full curriculum, part of a push by the federal government to expand its pipeline and make up a national shortfall of 3,000 controllers.
Soon, those colleges may be playing an outsize role in training future controllers, as the protracted government shutdown threatens to temporarily cut off funding for students at the FAA’s academy.
Two federal judges recently directed the Trump administration to use available emergency funds to keep the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program going. While White House officials said on Monday they would provide reduced SNAP benefits, President Donald Trump on Tuesday muddied the waters by suggesting that the federal government will not pay any SNAP benefits during the government shutdown.
It’s under this political landscape that colleges are trying to keep students fed and on track academically. Now facing the longest government closure in U.S. history, many community colleges are stepping up efforts to stock food pantries through funding campaigns and partnerships with other organizations and local and state government agencies.
Officials at the University of California, San Diego, believe that even if students would rather not establish careers as climate scientists or advocates, they should still learn about the science and social effects of climate change, just as they learn about literature and history.
Other schools are taking note. Even as President Donald Trump dismisses climate change as a hoax and cancels funding for research on it, more colleges and universities across the country are exploring how to ensure their students are knowledgeable about the subject.
Americans want and deserve a higher education that leads them to economic mobility and financial well-being. However, many programs now leave students burdened with debt and no improved job opportunities.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which President Donald Trump signed into law earlier this year, includes the creation of a new accountability metric that holds degree programs accountable for increased earnings after completion. While this change is a significant step forward in addressing educational programs that don’t pay off, much more needs to be done, experts say.
Dual enrollment is a massive and growing trend; according to federal data, 2.8 million high school students were enrolled in at least one college class in the 2023-2024 academic year. At the average college, dual enrollment students accounted for more than a quarter of all enrollment.
The association for dual enrollment programs, the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships, celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. While NACEP’s core goals haven’t changed, course delivery, public policies, and perceptions of dual enrollment certainly have. NACEP's Amy Williams explains more in this interview.
