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.
In the past year alone, a slew of universities have either announced new free tuition programs or expanded their existing ones.
Administrators at more than half a dozen institutions with promise programs say they hope that the move will attract low-income students who didn’t realize how financially accessible higher education, even at expensive institutions, can be. It’s also an effort to improve cost transparency—an area that has frequently come under scrutiny as the actual cost of college becomes increasingly obscured by scholarships, aid, fees and books, and other indirect costs.
The Trump administration is hitting universities where it hurts, terminating thousands of research grants in areas it deems wasteful or ideologically driven. Many scientists who study vaccine hesitancy, gender identity, and climate change have either lost grant money or been put on notice that their federal funding could soon disappear.
What does this mean for the U.S. academic-research enterprise, which seeks to cure diseases, understand societal problems, and even save the planet? And how might a highly politicized approach to doling out federal research money change the nature of science itself?
The United Negro College Fund (UNCF) just received a landmark $70 million gift from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott in what amounts to one of her largest gifts ever. Historically Black Colleges and Universities will use the money to bolster their endowments, which will help close longstanding gaps in resources and financial stability. It's part of a billion-dollar capital campaign that UNCF is leading to ensure that HBCUs can grow and thrive well into the future.
Michael Lomax, UNCF president and CEO, explains more in this interview about what the historic gift means, the immediate impact it will have for students, and the broader outlook for HBCUs.
New national test results for 12th graders, released this month, showed significant declines in students’ math and reading abilities since 2019, results that are now being felt in college and the labor market.
The results have vast implications for a generation of students, the U.S. economy, and the country. Fundamental reading and math skills are needed for a wide range of jobs, employers and industry leaders say, from health care workers calculating medication dosage and documenting patient care to truck drivers navigating the nation’s highways.
Despite the clamor surrounding the effects of artificial intelligence on higher education, critics may be focusing on the wrong threat. The loudest concerns have been about plagiarism and that students will use AI to generate their essays and dodge the work of writing.
But even for those committed to doing their own work, AI poses a threat that may be quieter and harder to measure—that students will go off to college and encounter the experience of learning far more solitary, far lonelier, than ever before.
Community colleges play a crucial role in providing educational opportunities in rural communities, offering a convenient location for individuals to learn, grow, and build a brighter future. Increasingly, however, community colleges are under pressure to deliver education more effectively and efficiently.
But improving delivery alone will not be enough to regain trust, enrollment, and government investment. Rural community colleges must become rural development hubs, delivering value by bridging economic, social, and civic sectors to address regional challenges, contend two education leaders in this op-ed.
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