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 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 MoreFall semesters are just beginning and the companies offering three leading AI models: Gemini by Google, Claude by Anthropic and ChatGPT by OpenAI have rolled out tools to facilitate AI-enhanced learning. Here’s a comparison and how to get them. Each of the three leading AI providers has taken a somewhat different approach to providing an…
Read MoreTrump Administration Gives Harvard 20 Days to Turn Over Admissions Data | Policy Matters (September 2025)
Major Updates Trump Administration Gives Harvard 20 Days to Turn Over Admissions Data The U.S. Department of Education has given Harvard University 20 days to turn over detailed admissions data in connection with an ongoing federal review of selective admissions practices. While focused on one institution, this move signals heightened scrutiny across higher education. Administrators…
2025 UPCEA MEMS Award Recipients Announced
29 Recipients Chosen For Three Award Categories WASHINGTON, D.C., September 17, 2025 — UPCEA, the online and professional education association, has announced the recipients of the 2025 Excellence in Enrollment Management Award, the Excellence in Advancing Student Success Award, and the Excellence in Marketing Award. All three awards are sponsored by UPCEA’s Marketing, Enrollment, and…
Honoring the Life and Legacy of Dr. James P. Pappas
UPCEA joins colleagues, friends, and the broader higher education community in mourning the passing of Dr. James P. Pappas, who dedicated his career to advancing the reach, relevance, and impact of online, professional and continuing education. Dr. Pappas, a former President of UPCEA, was the 1999 Walton S. Bittner Service Citation Award recipient and 2006…
UPCEA Partners with AACRAO to Present 2025 Convergence: Credential Innovation in Higher Education
September 29-October 1 conference to take place in metro Washington DC area WASHINGTON, D.C., ISSUED SEPTEMBER 9, 2025. UPCEA, the online and professional education association, and AACRAO, a non-profit organization that supports higher education professionals, are again joining together to present Convergence: Credential Innovation in Higher Education, an event exploring the future of alternative credentials…
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 MoreIt’s no secret that COVID-19 disrupted higher education. Overnight, students and instructors shifted from traditional, face-to-face instruction to a fully-virtual model. Student retention was already top-of-mind for college and university administrators. But this sudden shift made the challenge of keeping students engaged even more difficult. A return to traditional, in-person learning is imminent. But…
Read MoreFinancial sustainability is the biggest existential threat facing higher education today. In the United Kingdom, the universities in deficit have almost quintupled in the last five years, from 24 in 2015/16 to 119 in 2018/19. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this challenge, with London Economics predicting that universities will be hit by a $3bn shortfall…
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