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 MoreUPCEA Announces Partnership with Drexel University Online
Partnership is in Support of Initiative Dedicated to Advances in Online Education, Virtually Inspired WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 15, 2018) — UPCEA today announced a new partnership with Drexel University Online (DUO) to provide the association’s community with access to DUO’s ‘Virtually Inspired’ website. Virtually Inspired features a series of high-quality videos illuminating how educators worldwide…
Education Department Announces Substantial Rule-Making Session
The Department of Education has announced a negotiated rulemaking committee to prepare regulations for a wide-range of issues pertinent to UPCEA member institutions. The extremely wide range of topics to be discussed include, but is not limited to: State authorization Regular and substantive interaction Definition of “credit hour” Discussion of EQUIP-style programmatic delivery by third-party…
ED Announces Plan to End Gainful Employment Rule
The Department of Education through Secretary Betsy DeVos plans to end the regulations which required for-profit and vocational schools to provide “gainful employment” to the students that move through their programs. The regulation was one of the defining for-profit student consumer safeguards put into place by the Obama administration. The rules would cut off federal…
UPCEA Recognizes University of Wisconsin-Extension for Excellence in Online Learning
UW-Extension receives recognition for a high-quality online education program WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 26, 2018) — The National Council for Online Education announced today that the University of Wisconsin-Extension successfully completed the UPCEA Hallmarks of Excellence in Online Leadership Review program, demonstrating consistent excellence throughout its online programs. The UPCEA Hallmarks of Excellence in Online Leadership…
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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