Top Higher Education News for Wednesday
Lumina

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.

October 1, 2025

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The College Degree Is Not Losing Value

Nate Weisberg, Washington Monthly

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Despite headlines proclaiming tough times for recent college graduates, the college wage premium still holds. Yes, artificial intelligence is disrupting entry-level work, but don’t mistake short-term chaos for economic collapse. The college degree has endured for a reason, experts contend. What we need isn’t fewer of them, but better-aligned ones: programs tailored to workforce demand, policies that boost affordability and completion, and institutions that help students translate education into opportunity.

 

The bartender with a doctorate will always be good copy. But the college degree remains the surest, sturdiest path to prosperity.

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White House Considers Funding Advantage for Colleges That Align With Trump Policies

Laura Meckler and Susan Svrluga, The Washington Post

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The White House is developing a plan that could change how universities are awarded research grants, giving a competitive advantage to schools that pledge to adhere to the values and policies of the Trump administration on admissions, hiring, and other matters.

 

The new system, described by two White House officials, represents a shift away from the unprecedented wave of investigations and punishments being delivered to individual schools and toward an effort to bring large swaths of colleges into compliance with Trump priorities all at once.

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Leadership in Turbulent Times

Sara Custer, The Key

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Today's higher education leaders are facing an avalanche of challenges, including issues involving diversity, equity, and inclusion, politics, and finances. The pressures have become so severe that the average tenure of a college president is now less than six years, according to the American Council on Education.

 

In this interview, Beverly Daniel Tatum—two-time college president, New York Times bestselling author, and one of the country’s most influential voices on race and education—shares leadership lessons for driving positive change in turbulent times.

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How a Smaller NIH Could Have Hindered Medical Research

Kathryn Palmer, Inside Higher Ed

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Since the mid-1940s, the National Institutes of Health has sent billions of dollars to university researchers whose work has led to the creation of scores of lifesaving treatments for a range of diseases, including cancer, Alzheimer’s, and heart disease. By one estimate, NIH-funded research was linked to roughly 99 percent of drugs that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved between 2010 and 2019.

 

However, patient advocates and researchers warn that the United States won’t be able to maintain its global standing as a powerhouse of medical breakthroughs if the NIH loses 40 percent of its budget, as President Donald Trump has proposed.

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Black Professors on Turning Point’s Watch List Face Harassment On and Off Campus

Alecia Taylor, Capital B

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A.D. Carson is one of more than 300 professors on the "Professor Watch List," a website created by Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk that documents professors who have spoken about anything the far right deems “radical.” 

 

In the aftermath of Kirk’s assassination, Capital B spoke to several professors targeted on the list. Like Carson, they remain on high alert, but the threats haven’t stopped them from creating spaces for students to speak freely about controversial topics. Yet, the professors’ supporters still have major concerns: What does safety look like off campus, and how is free speech protected on college campuses following Kirk’s death?

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Can Colleges Be Run Using AI?

Lee Gardner, The Chronicle of Higher Education

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Is artificial intelligence transforming the way college administrators work? They are adopting AI tools in budgeting, enrollment management, and facility offices, but piecemeal and often cautiously.

 

AI evangelists say it’s a game changer that will transform how they do their jobs, but even boosters acknowledge the growing pains and unknowns as the technology burgeons and morphs from week to week.

HUMAN WORK AND LEARNING

Higher Education Leaders Convene to Address Civic Discourse Crisis

Walter Hudson, Diverse Issues in Higher Education

University of Oregon’s Historic Debate Program Faces Cuts Amid University Budget Deficit

Tiffany Camhi, Oregon Public Broadcasting

California Colleges Lost Millions in Humanities Purge. Their Projects Might Not Recover

Lylah Schmedel-Permanna, CalMatters

AI Isn't Replacing Radiologists

Deena Mousa, Works in Progress

COLLEGE AFFORDABILITY

What You Need to Know About College Tuition Costs

Sarah Wood, U.S. News & World Report

Trump Is Rewriting the Rules of Who Can Afford College as Parent PLUS Loans Are Capped or Phased Out

Ashley Lutz, Fortune

Georgia Needs an Educated Workforce. That Means Making College More Affordable, State Senator Says

Donna Lowry, Georgia Public Broadcasting

FEDERAL POLICY

The Federal Government Has Shut Down. Here’s What It Means for Higher Ed.

Claire Murphy, The Chronicle of Higher Education

Georgia International Students Could See Visas Limited to Four Years

Meimei Xu, WABE

‘It Wasn’t Ready, Aim, Fire —It Was Fire, Fire, Fire’: Gauging Cuts to the Federal Workforce in Mass.

Daniel Jackson, MassLive

NSF Engines, Place-Based Innovation on the Minds of Bipartisan Policymakers

Morgan Polk, New America

STUDENT SUPPORT

Basic Needs, Real Costs: Pantries to Policy

Cristian Ulisses Reyes, National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators

New Jersey’s County Colleges Launch Statewide Fundraising Effort to Address Food Insecurity Among Students

P. Kenneth Burns, WHYY

How MacKenzie Scott Is Supporting Native Students

Marybeth Gasman, Forbes

Students Who Lack Academic Confidence More Likely to Use Generative AI for School

Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed

NEW REPORTS AND EVENTS

Webinar: Lessons on Collecting Data and Driving Change to Support Student Parent Success

Urban Institute

Webinar: Reinventing the Post-Admission Process

The Chronicle of Higher Education

Closing Research Gaps to Support Rural Students

MDRC

America the Exceptional

George W. Bush Presidential Center

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Daily Lumina News is edited by Patricia Brennan.

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