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.
Microcredential programs have been around for more than a decade but now are mushrooming. Ten years ago, some in higher ed feared that the programs, which surged around 2012 with the growth of massive open online courses, or MOOOCs, could pose an existential threat to the college degree. Students often found them disappointing: Completion rates on many averaged less than 10 percent.
But today, as colleges prepare for years of enrollment declines and find students even less willing to spend four years accumulating debt with no guaranteed job in sight, microcredentials look like a more viable solution, say some higher education watchers.
Calbright College is on the cusp of a transition. The all-online community college, launched in 2019, could cement its place in California’s higher ed landscape with an infusion of state funds. But if that funding doesn’t materialize, significant layoffs loom, and staff worry the cuts could undermine the institution’s mission.
Calbright was created to cater to the needs of the state’s adult learners with free, self-paced certificate programs, and state lawmakers gave the institution seven years to ramp up offerings and develop and implement a unique competency-based model.
If higher education is serious about rebuilding public trust, affordability must become a sustained, systemwide commitment.
That means keeping tuition predictable, expanding need-based aid, addressing basic needs like food, housing, transportation and child care, and ensuring the students who start college finish their degrees. It also means making the value of college clearer and more transparent so students and families can make informed decisions with confidence, says this former U.S. Secretary of Education.
They come from diverse backgrounds and circumstances, yet they are united by a shared bond of determination, faith, and resilience. For Luveesa Shockley, these qualities played a crucial role in her journey from being an inmate at the Indiana Women's Prison to becoming a college graduate.
In this interview, Shockley and four other Indianapolis students from the class of 2026 talk about education, life, and what graduation means to them.
For most people, going back to school as an adult is a hopeful step. It is a bet on the future: a decision to invest time, money, and energy toward building a more stable life for themselves. That is especially true for older adults who return to college while working and raising children.
Once enrolled, these adult learners gain access to financial resources—including grants, loans, and campus-based support services—that should, in theory, provide a buffer against housing instability. However, that may not be enough, according to new research.
Instead of cheers, commencement speakers at some colleges and universities across the United States heard boos this spring when they mentioned artificial intelligence to anxious graduates facing an employment landscape rapidly being reshaped by AI.
But colleges are hoping that students entering this fall will not graduate with the same level of anxiety about the technology. Schools are scrambling to expand AI offerings with focused majors and incorporating the technology into their curricula—changes that could lead future graduates to see AI more as a tool rather than an existential threat.
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