Institutions must begin preparing now for 2026 implementation. On July 4, 2025, Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), a sweeping legislative package that reshapes federal student aid and accountability policy. Among many consequential provisions for higher education is the creation of Workforce Pell, which will extend Pell Grant eligibility to some short-term,…
Read MoreIntroduction Enrollment managers face a paradox: students demand personalized service, yet resources are shrinking. While AI is exciting, it is also an expensive endeavor for enrollment management divisions already stretched by staffing and resource challenges. Traditional methods—manual file reviews, siloed systems, and lagging indicators—simply can’t keep up. The solution lies in determining how to leverage…
Read MoreAn artifact of the race to the top in Artificial Intelligence (AI) is that mistakes inevitably occur in refining the models that are under continuous development. One of those many mistakes apparently led to hallucinations in outputs. We all are witness to the incredibly frenetic race to develop AI tools that publicly kicked off on…
Read MoreUniversity budgets across the country are broken. Overall revenue and accumulated financial support appear to be declining at most universities for a wide variety of reasons. New funding policies, administrative reorganizations such as those at the Department of Education, lean fiscal times for states, diminished regard for higher learning, fewer requirements for degrees among employers…
Read MoreTake Action on Proposed State Authorization Reciprocity Regulations | Policy Matters (April 2024)
Major Updates Urgent: Take Action on Proposed State Authorization Reciprocity Regulations The Department of Education is set to introduce new regulations that could significantly alter state authorization reciprocity agreements, critically affecting online education and our students’ futures. Following the lack of consensus in recent negotiated rulemaking sessions, the forthcoming rules are expected to impose…
How to Market Your Higher Education Programs to Prospective Students
As the college admissions landscape continues undergoing seismic shifts, higher education administrators and marketing teams must be able to come up with innovative, future-forward marketing strategies designed to increase interest, boost admission rates, and target student populations that may not otherwise have considered attending college. By developing a marketing strategy for student recruitment, you can promote your higher…
UPCEA Recognizes the 2024 Summit for Online Leadership and Administration + Roundtable and Distance Teaching & Learning Conference Award Recipients
7 Individuals Receive Honors WASHINGTON (April 18, 2024) – UPCEA, the online and professional education association, is pleased to recognize the recipients of this year’s online and distance education awards. Award recipients will be honored at the 2024 Summit for Online Leadership and Administration + Roundtable (SOLA+R) and Distance Teaching & Learning Conference (DT&L), July…
UPCEA Announces 2024-2025 Leadership Teams for Council for Chief Online Learning Officers and Council for Credential Innovation
UPCEA, the online and professional education association, announced today the 2024-2025 leadership teams for the Council for Chief Online Learning Officers and Council for Credential Innovation. The association extends its gratitude to the 37 member volunteers serving in leadership roles for these two bodies. The Council for Chief Online Learning Officers (C-COLO) and its members…
We 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 MoreOver the last three years, UPCEA engaged in an innovative partnership with the University of Wisconsin–Madison to enable the latter’s Distance Teaching and Learning (DT&L) conference to continue under UPCEA’s leadership. The partnership’s goals included making this valuable event for the distance learning community more sustainable and accessible to online practitioners focused on teaching and…
Read MoreInnovation attracts attention, and not all of it good. Protecting data, students, and credibility now means securing every AI experiment before it secures you. The Bright Side, and the Blind Spots, of AI in Higher Ed AI is higher ed’s new favorite partner and, like any power couple, it comes with complications. It’s rewriting…
Read MoreIs your institution ready to deliver, comply, and compete? This update is intended to highlight key portions of the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) that affect colleges and universities. The goal is not to offer opinion, but to bring clarity around the law’s implications—especially the arrival of Workforce Pell. The OBBB is a broad, multi-issue…
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