We are emerging from the pandemic and the higher education landscape is daunting. The battle for funding and student loan debt relief is tied up in the court system. New statements have been released from the Department of Education regarding bundled services and third-party providers. Politics are at play regarding college systems in Florida and…
Read MoreBy Jim Fong, UPCEA’s Chief Research Officer, and Bruce Etter, UPCEA’s Senior Director of Research and Consulting When hikers are faced with an obstacle like a cliff, they have several options. One is to go around it but with some mixture of uncertainty and consequences, such as lost time or having to use additional resources.…
Read MoreWhen generative AI came rolling out of development lab obscurity last year, most of us were surprised – even shocked. AI has always been a path to streamline production and distribution. In the past, it had come to replace blue collar jobs. When I first tried it out in August, I wrote in this column, “Higher…
Read MoreWe have a new partner in higher education to assist with fulfilling our primary mission. What is our primary mission? I turned to our new partner to briefly articulate that, “The primary mission of higher education is to provide advanced learning opportunities beyond the high school level, with the aim of developing a highly skilled…
Read MoreCreating Non-Credit to Credit Pathways
Alternative credential experts identify the conditions necessary to design and deliver non-credit to credit pathways at postsecondary institutions. Over the course of 2022, the Typology, Terminology, and Standards Subcommittee[1] of the Council for Credential Innovation discussed the conditions necessary to create non-credit to credit pathways at postsecondary institutions. Their deliberations eventually narrowed to non-credit learning…
As Colleges Focus on Quality in Online Learning, Advocates Ask: What About In-Person Courses? (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
As colleges’ online catalogs grow, so too has the push to develop standards of quality for those courses. But are in-person classes getting the same attention? If you ask many online-education advocates, the answer is “no.” While decades of research and the pandemic-spurred expansion of online learning have helped demystify it and build confidence in…
Employers Are All In on Microcredentials, Survey Shows (Inside Higher Ed)
Ninety-five percent of employers see benefits in their employees accruing microcredentials, according to a new survey from Collegis Education and UPCEA, the association for college and university leaders in online and professional continuing education. Among the leaders surveyed from 500 organizations, 76 percent said pursuing microcredentials demonstrates an employee’s willingness to develop their skills, 63 percent said it…
Employer Demand for Microcredentials On the Rise, New Study From UPCEA and Collegis Education Reveals
Nearly 100 percent of organizational leaders see benefits from employees having microcredentials WASHINGTON (February 22, 2023) — Employer demand for microcredentials is on the rise, according to a new study released today by UPCEA, the association for college and university leaders in online and professional continuing education, and Collegis Education. The report, “The Effect of…
I’m pleased to share with you some exciting news: UPCEA’s industry-leading events will be back live and in-person in April 2022! Even better, we are combining the Annual Conference and the Summit for Online Leadership and Administration + Roundtable (SOLA+R), hosting both events in Orlando, FL, at Disney’s Coronado Springs April 11-14, 2022. For the…
Read MoreExciting news — the Marketing and Enrollment Management Seminar will again be held virtually in 2021. The 2020 Seminar was a great success, with many first-time attendees among the more than 1,250 registrants. We heard clearly from UPCEA members like you that institutional budget and travel restrictions would severely limit access to in-person events for…
Read MoreIf your school is investing heavily in creating brand awareness and generating leads at the top of the funnel (TOFU) but getting lackluster results, enrollment management issues lower in the funnel may be to blame. To achieve enrollment goals, you need a strong enrollment management foundation—a system for guiding prospective students beyond the initial awareness…
Read MoreStudent veterans make up approximately six percent of undergraduate college students and seven percent of graduate students (US Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics). While generally referred to as student veterans, this overarching title includes active-duty service members and those in the National Guard or Reserves. Precise information on the military-connected student population,…
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