Industry Insights

Valuable insights from UPCEA's trusted corporate partners.

Getting the Attention of Employers to Scale Your Microcredential Program

April 3, 2023

We read almost daily about the need for upskilling and reskilling the workforce and the opportunity for higher education institutions to provide training through microcredential programs. While a recent survey by Collegis Education and UPCEA confirms this need, the fact is many colleges and universities who offer microcredentials have realized only meager enrollments. For microcredential…

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Is Your Enrollment Management Function Set Up for Success?

March 9, 2023

If 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…

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How Supporting Student Veterans Benefits Your Institution

March 1, 2023

Student 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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Does Higher Ed’s Value Proposition Resonate with Adult Learners?

January 11, 2023

Recent higher education trends have made it clear that now more than ever, colleges and universities must have successful strategies for engaging adult learners. The US birth rate has declined steadily over the past decade, leading to an inevitable reduction in traditional college enrollees aged 18 to 24. There is also an increasing number of…

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Making the Case: Marketing to Adult Learners with Data

December 1, 2022

With enrollments declining and as a tight labor market reaches record-low unemployment,, marketers and recruiters in higher education now face the difficult task of finding new students in a uniquely challenging time for colleges and universities. One potential source of those new students? Adult learners. Moving Up and Moving Forward, a new research report from Lightcast, uses analysis…

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Other Blogs and News:

UPCEA’s 2025 Online Education Benchmarking Report Provides Vital Data for University Leaders

Second annual study provides new KPI benchmarks around enrollments, finance, and budget, explores the impact of AI, and provides strategic recommendations for online leaders to thrive in these uncertain times.  WASHINGTON, D.C., ISSUED AUGUST 12, 2025…UPCEA, the online and professional education association, today announced the release of a new research report, “Benchmarking Online Enterprises: Insights…

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How to Build Strong Employer Partnerships to Support Student Success

Now, possibly more than ever, it is critically important for colleges and universities to engage with employers for the benefit of our students. Higher education is facing an unprecedented time. The demographic cliff is upon us, the current political environment has led to policy whiplash and has upended funding sources for research. Our campuses have…

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Artificial Intelligence is Non-Negotiable for Higher Education Marketing and Enrollment Management

Why Institutional Leaders Can No Longer Afford to Wait on AI adoption The clock is ticking for higher education institutions that haven’t fully embraced AI. What was once an experimental advantage in marketing and enrollment has quickly become an urgent necessity. AI has firmly established itself as an operational imperative across diverse industries, with the…

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Congress Passes President Trump’s OBBB—Workforce Pell Included, but Higher Ed Gets $300 Billion Slash | Policy Matters (July 2025)

Major Updates Congress Passes President Trump’s OBBB—Workforce Pell Included, but Higher Ed Gets $300 Billion Slash President Trump’s newly signed One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB) overhauls the federal approach to higher education policy. Short-term Pell advocates (of which UPCEA has been a long supporter) have something to be thankful for, as it opens Workforce…

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Synchronizing Pathways: Advancing the National Dialogue on Credentials and Learning Mobility

Incubator grant supports critical work to align data practices and learning mobility frameworks to benefit today’s learners WASHINGTON July 31, 2025 – UPCEA, the online and professional education association, has launched a national initiative to advance credential transparency and learner mobility through improved data quality and institutional capacity-building. The project titled, “Synchronizing Pathways: Expanding Institutional…

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Accelerating Institutional Capacity for Employer Engagement in Credential Innovation

As the future of work rapidly evolves, higher education institutions must accelerate their capacity to engage with employers—building bridges between learning and labor market relevance. At UPCEA, with support from Walmart, the world’s largest employer, we’ve undertaken two major initiatives to strengthen these bridges. The first project provided foundational benchmarking data, a practical playbook, and…

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