As leaders in online and professional continuing education, UPCEA members have spent years advocating for short-term programs to be eligible for federal financial aid. We know the value of nimble, high-impact non-degree credentials and short-term certificate programs. Now that federal Workforce Pell Grants have officially launched as of July 1, 2026, the promise of expanding…
The first article in this series explored how the updated UPCEA Hallmarks of Excellence in Digital Learning Enterprises reflect the evolution of digital learning from a specialized initiative into an institutional opportunity and responsibility. As digital learning has become woven into strategic planning, enrollment management, academic affairs, and institutional sustainability, another question becomes evident in the…
I asked Gemini 3 Thinking, ChatGPT 5.4 Thinking, and Sonnet 4.6 Extended to tell me what jobs in higher education are most vulnerable to replacement by Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the next five years. I also asked for recommendations for current and prospective employees in the field. First, let me share with you links to…
Today as I publish the several curated reading lists I maintain, it strikes me that we are approaching the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into our universities in a piecemeal rather than a comprehensive fashion. It seems that most universities began taking up the topic in a transactional way following the release of ChatGPT ‘s…
Unlocking Opportunity: How Tax Policies Like Section 127 Can Drive Employer Partnerships
By Chelsea Miller, UpSkill America, and Amy Heitzman, UPCEA This piece was originally published in July 2025. It has since been updated to reflect changes to Section 127 as a result of the 2025 tax reconciliation bill. Updated September 1, 2026. Partnership is a key driver to unlocking opportunity in America. This is why UPCEA and UpSkill…
Building Tomorrow’s University Today
How continuing education leaders are turning institutional pressure into possibility Higher education is under no shortage of pressure. Enrollment volatility, strained financial models, rapidly changing technologies, and evolving learner expectations are forcing institutions to reconsider whom they serve, how learning is delivered, and what sustainability will require. But pressure does not determine what comes next….
ED Releases Proposed Accreditation Rule; Comments Due September 21 | Policy Matters (August 2026)
Major Updates ED Releases Proposed Accreditation Rule; Comments Due September 21 The U.S. Department of Education published its proposed accreditation rule, Accreditation, Innovation, and Modernization: The Secretary’s Recognition of Accrediting Agencies, on August 20, following the AIM negotiated rulemaking committee’s consensus agreement in May (which we previously covered in our May Policy Matters newsletter). The…
Membership ROI Calculator: A Simple Framework to Justify UPCEA for Your Team
When a budget review lands on your desk, line items for professional association memberships are often the first to draw scrutiny. The question from leadership is reasonable: What do we actually get for this? For online and professional continuing education units, the honest answer is usually “a great deal” — but only if you can…
In 1915, UPCEA’s founders built this association on a simple idea: carrying knowledge to the people. That founding purpose never had an expiration date, and it does not have one now. It is why, more than a century later, the question in front of us was never whether professional learning needs to change. It is…
The tagline for Convergence, Credential Innovation in Higher Education, raises two important questions: First, what kind of credentials are we talking about? Is the scope of credentials unlimited, blue sky, or confined to incremental changes on the margins of the status quo? And second, who is leading that innovation, and what do they need to…
Three years ago, I joined my first UPCEA event without knowing many people in the room. Today, Drieam is a UPCEA Silver Partner, and I’ve lost count of how many Coffee Chats, webinars and conversations that partnership has led to. What has stayed consistent across those three years is not the format of the conversations,…
Why bringing workforce development into the conversation from the beginning can change the role universities play in economic growth. Imagine building a university because you’re building an industry. I recently spent time in Malaysia meeting with university and business leaders, and that idea stuck with me. We talk constantly about aligning higher education with workforce…