Who Profits? Students’ Experiences at For-Profit Colleges

Jan. 20, 2023
For-profit colleges consistently generate regulatory scrutiny and litigation because of their recruitment tactics, graduation rates, costs and loan default rates. Compared to public higher education institutions, for-profit colleges have been criticized for being more expensive with similar or worse job market outcomes for graduates, who tend to be left with higher debt. They also enroll…

Playbook for Transfer Pathways to the Liberal Arts

March 16, 2022
Bachelor’s degree attainment for community college transfer students is one underutilized but essential pathway for reducing equity gaps in higher education. One way to achieve this at scale is through state-level initiatives dedicated to supporting transfer from community colleges to not-for-profit independent colleges. This report from Ithaka S+R looks at successful statewide transfer initiatives in…

Building Ohio’s Workforce Through Stackable Credentials

June 10, 2021
Ohio is a leader in scaling stackable credential programs. The state passed initial legislation on stackable credentials nearly 15 years ago, and it has since rolled out a series of initiatives that expand opportunities for individuals to stack credentials. Have institutions changed the programs that they offer? Are students stacking credentials, and, when they do, are they…

Making Information About Credentials More Actionable

May 21, 2021
Seven state leadership organizations and five workforce, education, and data advocacy/technical assistance experts have come together to build awareness, understanding, and demand for how policy can integrate credential transparency into education and workforce development state strategies. This brief from Credential Engine explores the ways that credential transparency can be supported, integrated, and leveraged within states.
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The Short-term Credentials Landscape

May 5, 2021
Given the rapid growth in short-term programs, and policymakers’ fast-growing interest to invest federal higher education dollars into very-short-term credentials, we explore what the research does—and does not— show us about such credentials’ utility in the labor market. With concerns about equity, our review of the literature guides us towards caution, as a strong push…

Innovative Strategies to Close Postsecondary Attainment Gaps

Feb. 23, 2021
Across the country, students are unwittingly leaving postsecondary credentials on the table without institutions awarding the associate degrees they have earned. Many of these students are from populations that have been historically excluded from or overlooked in higher education, including Black, Latino, Indigenous students, and students from low-income backgrounds. This report from the Institute for…

Badge Count 2020

Dec. 28, 2020
A new report from IMS Global and Credential Engine details the growth of Open Badges, which are verifiable, shareable, and contain information about achievements and what recipients did to earn the badge. According to the report, there are 475,000 total badges around the world that individuals can earn, 381,561 of which are available from issuers in the U.S. To date, there…
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The Role of Education in Taming Authoritarian Attitudes

Sept. 16, 2020
The classic tension between free will and determinism can be found in the contemporary college or university within disciplines ranging from sociology to neuroscience to political science. The enduring and challenging questions faculty, researchers, and students all wrestle with include: How much freedom do we really have? Do we decide and act with an understanding…
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Lumina’s Strategic Plan

Sept. 15, 2020
Society’s need for talent and the drive to expand the proportion of Americans with quality education and training after high school to meet this need have never been more urgent. The confluence of a pandemic, severe unemployment and racial injustice has exposed the daunting challenges ahead. Yet overcoming such challenges is what has made our…

Creating Stackable Credential Programs

July 27, 2020
There are many unknowns when it comes to the future of work. Automation, technological advances, and shifting demands in our economy mean there are jobs that are being displaced and jobs that don’t even exist yet. One further challenge feeding into this changing and uncertain future is a workforce that may lack skillsets aligned to…