Imagine your bellwether program stepping into a modern search arena with a glossy tri-fold and a storied reputation, ready to battle any challenger. Across the ring rolls a robotic rival as “The Imperial March” blares over the speakers. The ref signals start; a blinding spotlight from the robot makes your program vanish from view. The…
Read MoreIntroduction At the 2025 UPCEA Annual Conference, the session “Owning Your Awesomeness” reminded us that professional growth isn’t just about mastering skills—it’s about recognizing and amplifying the unique strengths we already have. For leaders and practitioners in professional and online education this means embracing both the outward image we present and the inner narratives that…
Read MoreThere is a new “cliff” in American higher education, and it is not the demographic cliff. Rather, it is the dramatic cliff in math knowledge, skills, and abilities. Let me be clear that other discipline deficiencies are found in this new generation of college students, however they are dwarfed by those in math. These have…
Read MoreMost of us in higher education are now familiar with generative AI bots, where you formulate a prompt and get a reply. Yet, we are now beginning the advancement to agentic AI, the autonomous 24-7 project manager. The dramatic enhancement in the capability of AI as it moves from bots to agents will bring about…
Read MoreUPCEA Celebrates Successful Centennial Year
History, High Member Engagement, Impressive Speakers as 100th Year Comes To a Close WASHINGTON, DC – UPCEA (the University Professional and Continuing Education Association) celebrated its Centennial in 2015, the anniversary of the association’s founding and first Annual Conference in Madison, Wisc. in 1915. The theme of the 2015 Annual Conference, Access, Innovation, Engagement: A…
UPCEA Announces 2015 Division And Best In Show Marketing Award Recipients
6 Recipients Chosen Out of 18 Leading Entries for Top Honors DENVER, CO — UPCEA, the association for leaders in professional, continuing, and online education, has announced the Division and Best in Show award recipients of the 2015 Marketing Awards. The UPCEA Marketing Awards program recognizes the top marketing and creative work across the UPCEA membership…
UPCEA And OLC Form Coalition To Advance The Interests Of Non-Traditional Learners
WASHINGTON, DC, and NEWBURYPORT, MA, Sept. 24, 2015 — The University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA) and the Online Learning Consortium (OLC) have formed a coalition to advance the interests of non-traditional (sometimes called “contemporary”) learners and the programs that support them. This partnership comes at a time of great importance to the higher education federal policy landscape, as Congress…
UPCEA Announces Partnership With Keypath Education
WASHINGTON, DC– UPCEA, the association for professional, continuing, and online education, is pleased to announce the signing of a Silver level partnership agreement with Keypath Education, formerly known as PlattForm, a partner for higher education institutions around the world. Keypath Education is a full-service partner for more than 250 colleges and universities, delivering sustainable institutional growth…
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…
Read MoreWe are pleased to share the foreword by UPCEA CEO Bob Hansen from the newly released Chief Online Learning Officers’ Guidebook: A Framework for Strategy and Practice in Higher Education. The guidebook, now available from Routledge in paperback, hardback, and eBook formats, provides a comprehensive framework for today’s online learning leaders. Learn more and purchase…
Read MoreHalf of prospective students use AI tools every week. Yet, only about a third of higher education institutions have a formal strategy for AI search. That gap isn’t just a metric. It’s a brand visibility crisis. Students are using ChatGPT and Perplexity to research programs, compare universities, and narrow their lists, often before they ever…
Read MoreStudent success starts with the right conversation. By uniting data, technology, and human connection, institutions can shift from reactive outreach to proactive engagement that strengthens trust, equity, and long-term retention. Every Student Is a Story, Not a Segment “On the other side of every data point, every phone number, every email address, there’s a person…
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