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Perspectives on Online and Professional Education
from UPCEA’s Research and Consulting Experts

Preparing Four-Year Institutions for Workforce Pell

September 23, 2025

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,…

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How AI Is Rewriting the Playbook for Enrollment Management

September 22, 2025

Introduction 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…

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Unique biweekly insights and news review from Ray Schroeder, Senior Fellow at UPCEA

AI Hallucinations May Soon Be History

October 2, 2025

An 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…

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AI Teaching Learners Today: Pick Your Pedagogy!

September 18, 2025

University 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…

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Your one-stop shop for the latest Association happenings, policy updates, plus thoughts from the desk of CEO Bob Hansen.

Microcredentials on the Rise, but Not at Colleges (Inside Higher Ed)

As the pool of traditional-age students shrinks, colleges are increasingly turning to nondegree credentials to expand the appeal of their academic offerings to working adults. At the same time, an increasing number of employers want their employees to be able to upskill and reskill through microcredential programs. But four-year institutions are lagging behind third-party providers, such as LinkedIn…

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Employers Partnering to Provide Microcredential and Training Programs on the Rise, New Study From UPCEA and Collegis Education Reveals

Opportunities are growing, but higher ed institutions are losing ground to private providers WASHINGTON, DC (January 23, 2024) — Companies partnering externally to provide training or professional development to employees increased by 26 percent (nearly 15 percentage points) between 2022 and 2023, according to a new study released today by Collegis Education and UPCEA, the…

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Short-Term Credentials Are Booming in Texas. Are Employers Hiring? (Work Shift)

In Texas, money is flowing for short-term credentials. The state’s new funding formula, signed by the governor in June, is allocating dollars to community colleges in part based on how many credentials of value they award.  It would appear that there is no better time to invest in alternative credentials. Interest rates on student loans…

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Report: Microcredentials Not a Strategic Priority for Many Colleges (Inside Higher Ed)

While the majority of colleges focused on online, professional and continuing education have embraced alternative credentials, a significant number of those institutions haven’t made them a strategic priority. That’s one of the key takeaways from a new study released Monday by UPCEA, the online and professional education association.  “While a lot of institutions want this, they…

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Musings on trends and updates from UPCEA CEO Bob Hansen.

Foreword by Bob Hansen Featured in The COLO Guidebook

July 10, 2025

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…

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A new direction for the Distance Teaching and Learning Conference

November 7, 2024

Over 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…

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Valuable insights from UPCEA's trusted corporate partners.

AI and Cybersecurity: The New Power Couple on Campus

October 10, 2025

Innovation 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…

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Workforce Pell Is Now Law Under the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB)

October 6, 2025

Is 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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