Higher Education Redesigned

Reimagining College

America’s colleges and universities are at a crossroads. Although many people still see the value of higher education, many others are losing confidence, viewing it as too expensive or disconnected from real-world opportunities. At the same time, our economy demands a skilled workforce, equipped with the capabilities to adapt, contribute, and thrive.  

Enrollment is falling, and tens of millions of adults have some college credit but no degree. This is because today’s students are often adults balancing work, family, and education, and many face obstacles like unstable housing, limited childcare, and mental health struggles. Colleges were not built for these students, and the systems need to be boldly redesigned to meet their needs.  

Lumina is helping lead this transformation. We work with public colleges and universities, community colleges, and minority-serving institutions to create pathways to meaningful credentials, particularly for working adults. This transformation focuses on offering relevant courses, using data to improve outcomes, and providing flexible learning formats. Through this work, we hope to support individual success, strengthen communities, and create a more prosperous nation. 

College Admissions: Making College Accessible

Navigating college should be easy, but for many—especially first-time applicants, working adults, or those returning to finish degrees—the process can be overwhelming or discouraging. With our partners, we’re working to simplify admissions and expand outreach to historically overlooked students, helping them to find their path to college and stay on it.

Making Community Colleges More Welcoming

Many two-year institutions expect students to find their own way in, which leaves too many people behind. We support strategies that help community colleges:

• Actively recruit new students, not passively wait for them to apply.
• Build practices that reach students in their schools and communities.
• Strengthen dual-enrollment programs by ensuring high school students understand their options after graduation and that all students, especially those from underserved backgrounds, are encouraged to participate.

Helping Adults and Returning Students Reconnect

More than 43 million Americans have earned some college credit but never earned their degree. Many want to return but face barriers that make re-enrolling difficult or confusing. We’re working to:

• Simplify re-enrollment so students can easily understand which credits count and how to restart their education.
• Support working adults, caregivers, and students in the military through more flexible options and clearer communication.
• Highlight paths to credentials with value that lead to meaningful careers and stronger, more prosperous communities.

Reforming Policies That Push Students Out

One barrier is the Satisfactory Academic Progress rule. This federal policy cuts off financial aid for students who don’t meet academic standards for two consecutive terms, even when the reason is a personal crisis such as the death of a loved one. This disproportionately affects students from underserved backgrounds and makes returning to college nearly impossible for many.

We support efforts to:

• Reform federal rules to be fairer and more student centered.
• Re-engage students who have lost aid but want to continue their education.
• Improve data and transparency to better understand how policies affect student outcomes.

Student Supports: Advancing Student Success

Many of today’s students face challenges that extend far beyond the classroom, such as finding food, transportation, or childcare. Millions of students, especially adults, first-generation students, and students of color, need more than academic support. We work with colleges and states to create systems that help students get the financial and personal support they need to succeed. These systems include financial aid that goes further, more helpful advising, and policies that make college more accessible.

Addressing Gaps in Short-Term Program Support

Demand for short-term credentials in healthcare, logistics, and advanced manufacturing is growing. But the financial aid system hasn’t kept up. Pell Grants don’t cover many non-credit programs, making it difficult for students from low-income households to afford these rapid, workforce-focused pathways. And support services such as advising, transportation, or childcare are often disconnected from these training programs, especially when they operate outside a college’s main structure. Lumina is advancing efforts to bridge these gaps by:

• Helping states measure the value of tuition assistance for short-term credentials.
• Encouraging colleges to integrate support services such as food assistance, mental health care, or technology access across all programs, not just degree pathways.
• Supporting advising reforms that help students understand which credentials carry labor market value and how to navigate their options from the start. We’re also exploring how advising models can better resonate with Gen Z and Gen Alpha.

Refining Aid and Advising at Four-Year Colleges

At colleges and universities with a focus on bachelor’s programs, bureaucratic hurdles often stand in the way. The college application process can be overwhelming, and many students miss out on aid they’re eligible for simply because they don’t know it exists or how to apply.

Lumina supports:

• Simplifying state financial aid by promoting proactive eligibility and guaranteed aid models, so students get clear information about what they qualify for early.
• Modernizing college and career advising, so students understand how to get into college and what they’ll gain from specific programs: the skills, competencies, and job opportunities that come with different pathways and how to take on debt wisely.
• Improving access to outcomes data, including job placement rates, median earnings by major, and availability of internships, so students can make informed choices based on objective evidence, not guesswork.

Credentials of Value: Gaining Skills for a Better Future

Lumina is helping colleges and universities deliver degrees and other credentials that hold value in the workplace and the future of our economy. To meet Lumina’s new goal for 2040—ensuring that 75 percent of adults in the U.S. labor force have college degrees or other credentials with value—we must redefine what “value” truly means.

Credentials of value open the door to good jobs, long-term economic mobility, and a better quality of life. Lumina is working with community colleges and public four-year institutions nationwide to ensure that all students, especially those historically underserved, can earn credentials that deliver real and lasting economic returns.

Expanding Career-Aligned Credentials at Community Colleges

Community and technical colleges are key to reaching more adults with short-term credentials and associate degrees that reflect real workforce needs. Lumina’s efforts are part of a broader attempt to elevate community colleges’ role as engines of mobility and inclusion in the U.S. workforce. These efforts include:

• Supporting states and systems to redesign short-term credentialing programs that respond directly to labor market demand.
• Backing policies that improve access to these credentials, especially where federal aid falls short, ensuring working adults can afford to pursue them.
• Advancing employer engagement so that the skills taught in short-term programs are clearly understood and valued in hiring and promotion.
• Investigating how short-term credentials are perceived and used, all to close gaps in understanding that limit their impact.

Making Bachelor’s Degrees More Relevant and Equitable

Bachelor’s degrees remain a powerful tool for achieving economic prosperity, but they must evolve to meet students’ and employers’ changing needs. Lumina partners with public colleges and universities to make the bachelor’s degree more workforce-relevant, accessible, and valuable for all students—not just those with traditional access and resources. We aim to:

• Ensure that every degree program builds employability by integrating career-connected learning, such as internships, project-based coursework, and in-demand skill development.
• Embed short-term credentials within bachelor’s pathways, helping students stack credentials over time and boost workforce readiness along the way.
• Increase transparency around program outcomes, such as typical earnings, job placement rates, and career trajectories, to guide student decision-making.
• Advance advising and career support, especially among students from low-income households, Black, Latino, Hispanic, Native American, and first-generation students, specifically those from urban and rural communities.

Defining and Measuring Credential Value

To deliver on the promise of the 2040 goal, we need better tools to assess and ensure that all credentials truly lead to economic opportunity. That means going beyond narrow wage comparisons to understand broader dimensions of value. Lumina is:

• Building frameworks for assessing credential value based on earnings, job stability, upward mobility, and equity.
• Investing in tools that track program-level outcomes, disaggregated by race, ethnicity, income, and geographic region, to help students, institutions, and policymakers make more informed decisions.
• Elevating student voices and lived experiences to guide how value is defined, measured, and delivered.

A National Goal, A Shared Responsibility

Reaching 75 percent by 2040 will require a bold transformation of how we define and deliver higher education and workforce training in this country. We are committed to working with community colleges and public universities to build systems where all learning counts—and where every student can earn a credential that leads to lasting prosperity.