Industry Insights

Valuable insights from UPCEA's trusted corporate partners.

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…

The Benefit of Higher Education Being Late to Technology-Based Learning

September 14, 2018

In his recent book Thank You for Being Late, Thomas Friedman analyzes why the world seems to be accelerating away from us at a remarkable pace. His explanation: Humans are adaptable, but no generation has experienced technology, globalization and climate change at the rate we are seeing. As an example, Friedman suggests that if advances…

What about all this data?

August 17, 2018

For millennia, knowledge has always been equated to power. Information was once a scarce commodity and those who held the information or knowledge were generally already in power or had the ability to gain it. Since we have now left the industrial age and entered into ‘The Informational Age’ – or whatever we end of…

Other Blogs and News:

Seeing Part of the Picture: What We Still Cannot See About Online Students

For more than a decade, higher education leaders have relied on IPEDS data to understand the growth of distance education. Since distance education reporting was added to IPEDS in 2012, the number of students enrolled exclusively in distance education courses has more than doubled. Today, more than 5.3 million students are enrolled exclusively in distance…

The Modern Online and Professional Continuing Education Leader: Roles, Pressures, and What High-Performing Units Do Differently

Online and professional continuing education plays a pivotal part in expanding educational access and shaping contemporary workforce development. These programs serve a critical function in our communities, yet they face considerable challenges. Today’s leaders must navigate complexity tied to virtual learning and employer partnerships, along with changes in what communities expect from online and professional…

What is a “Professional” Degree? Lawsuits and Legislators Push Back against Trump Admin | Policy Matters (June 2026)

Major Updates What is a “Professional” Degree? Lawsuits and Legislators Push Back against Trump Admin Determinations The definition of a “professional” degree has quietly become one of the most consequential terms in federal financial aid, and it lands squarely on the graduate and professional programs many continuing education units operate. Under the One Big Beautiful…

What to Look for in a Higher Education Professional Association

Online and professional continuing is crucial for those in higher education leadership positions. Whether you are working to develop new programming at a college or university or serving as an academic dean, professional associations offer access to the leading seminars, conferences, higher education workshops, and networking events. Thus, choosing the right higher education association is…

Member Benefits You’ll Use Immediately (Not “Nice to Have”)

Joining a professional association should deliver tangible benefits right away — not just perks that look good on paper. For leaders in online and professional continuing education, the difference lies in benefits that solve real-world challenges, such as training teams quickly, validating budget decisions, troubleshooting with peers, and aligning strategy with emerging trends.  The most…

UPCEA Announces 2026-2027 Leadership Team for Council for Credential Innovation

UPCEA, the online and professional education association, announces the 2026-2027 leadership team for the Council for Credential Innovation (CCI). The association extends its gratitude to the 21 member volunteers serving in leadership roles for this body. The Council for Credential Innovation (CCI) and its members focus on leveraging the strategic potential of non-degree credentials, workforce-focused…