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.
Stay calm and respectful, but know your rights. Carry your student ID card at all times. Avoid unnecessary risks.
These are just some of the tips University of Illinois Chicago officials recently sent students in preparation for the deployment of hundreds of federal agents or even National Guard troops to the Chicago area, similar to recent federal actions in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. But for many students, the presence of federal immigration agents near or even on their campuses is sowing new fears of what the future may hold.
The choices one makes as a teenager can shape the rest of your life. If you take high school classes for college credit, you’re more likely to enroll at a university. If you take at least 12 credits of classes during your first year there, you’re more likely to graduate. And those decisions may even influence whether you develop dementia during your later years.
These and insights from thousands of other studies can all be traced to a trove of data that the federal government started collecting more than 50 years ago. Now that effort is over.
Another year, another fall that seems destined for bleak enrollment numbers. Between concerns about international student enrollment and continued skepticism about the value of higher education, some institutions are struggling to fill seats. Unexpected melt has prompted some wealthy, highly selective institutions to pull students off the wait list last minute; for smaller institutions, enrollment declines are leading to layoffs and program cuts.
But for a lucky share, fall 2025 has brought record freshman classes and soaring enrollment projections. In some cases, those record-breaking numbers follow steady growth since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic; in others, they represent a rebound from declines.
As President Donald Trump’s second presidential term reshapes the nation, Gen Z college students in Ohio and elsewhere across the country are grappling with a new reality on campus.
From executive orders ending diversity initiatives to sweeping changes in federal student loan programs, students are navigating a transformed higher education landscape that impacts their finances, academic environment, and future careers.
A new report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation reveals that young parents pursuing higher education face a complex web of challenges that contribute to dropout rates more than 20 percentage points higher than their non-parenting peers.
The financial burden on parenting students is particularly acute. Among those pursuing associate degrees, 57 percent take out student loans compared to 33 percent of non-parenting students. Black mothers face the highest debt burden, with more than one-third taking out more than $27,000 in loans for undergraduate studies, the report notes.
A burgeoning movement among Big Ten universities would create an alliance to counter government attacks on higher education, which the White House says aim to end “woke” policies on campuses it views as fostering antisemitism and harboring foreign students engaged in “known illegal” activity.
Several faculty and university senates have approved resolutions asking their leaders to sign a NATO-like agreement that would allow the institutions to share attorneys and pool financial resources in case President Donald Trump’s administration targets one of its members.
