Industry Insights

Valuable insights from UPCEA's trusted corporate partners.

Three Ways to Improve Communication and Increase Student Engagement

September 10, 2021

It’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…

The future of revenue diversification in higher education: Crucial insights for universities in a post-pandemic world

April 14, 2021

Financial 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…

The Top 7 Ways to Recruit Professional and Continuing Education Students for Higher Education

April 6, 2021

Your future continuing education students already exist — researching and searching for your programs right now. So how can you effectively tap into the continuing education market and recruit new students for your programs?  Who are your future students? According to research from Thinking Cap Agency, professional certification students are an average of 31 years…

Tune in: MindMax launches podcast on higher education

April 2, 2021

What has changed for you in the last year?   For the team at MindMax, almost everything has. Since March 2020, our company has shifted to an entirely remote workforce, helped our university partners pivot their marketing and enrollment strategies to meet the evolving needs of their current and future students, and overall, we’ve spent…

Are Big Data and Data Science a Threat to Higher Education?

March 15, 2019

It was encouraging to read an UPCEA blog post from August 2018 in which Mindmax CEO Lee Maxey critiqued our data and knowledge environment.  Mr. Maxey’s description of how we’re drowning in data was on point; the sheer mass of analytics, metrics and all things measuring is indeed a problem.  With Big Data, comes Data…

Other Blogs and News:

UPCEA’s Corporate Member Blog Series #1 | Follow the Budget: 5 Areas Where Higher Ed is Spending (and struggling) in 2026

The higher education landscape is arguably the toughest it has been in a generation, marked by economic instability, demographic decline, and the constant imperative for greater efficiency. The 2026 Landscape of Higher Education Report confirms this volatile reality: beginning in 2026, many institutions will face a sustained decline in traditional-aged undergraduates. Enrollment growth is now…

Workforce Pell Is Here and Data Readiness Is the Real Test for Credential Innovation

The expansion of Pell Grant eligibility to short-term, non-degree programs—commonly known as Workforce Pell—has become a defining moment for credential innovation. In a strategic conversation hosted by UPCEA in December 2025, higher education leaders made one thing clear: access to Workforce Pell is not primarily a policy challenge. It is a data challenge. As institutions…

Reduced-Credit Degrees: Leading with Learners While Preparing for Disruption

As questions about the value, cost, and structure of a traditional bachelor’s degree continue to intensify, higher education leaders are confronting a reality that has remained largely unchanged for decades: the 120-credit-hour degree is more a historical artifact than a learner-centered design choice. During a recent conversation with UPCEA Institutional Representatives, panelists and participants explored…

Pack Light, Go Far: Hiking the Enrollment Trail

There’s a moment from my college days I remember more clearly than any midterm I ever took. I had stepped away from my bachelor’s degree at Penn State because I wanted to live a little. I’d grown up in the same town that I went to college and I just needed an extended reprieve, something…

Preparing the Workforce for an AI-Driven Economy: An Online and Professional Continuing Education Imperative

Is your online and professional continuing education unit looking for ways to improve job-market outcomes for graduates and alumni? Are you exploring strategies that better align your program portfolio with the skills business and industry leaders say they need both for new hires and for upskilling current employees?  Recent employer data provides a clear signal that high-demand employees are ones with verified AI skills and practical experience. A 2025…

Workforce Pell Grants: Primer and Update from Negotiated Rulemaking | Policy Matters (December 2025)

Major Updates Workforce Pell Grants for Short-Term Programs: A Primer and Update from Negotiated Rulemaking: Consensus Reached – What’s in the Draft Regulations We’ve developed a blog that provides a primer and overview of the recent negotiated rulemaking work on Workforce Pell Grants for Short-Term Programs, focusing on the first week of sessions held by…