Lumina Foundation is working to increase the share of adults in the U.S. labor force with college degrees or other credentials of value leading to economic prosperity. |
| Natasha Singer, The New York Times SHARE: Facebook • LinkedIn OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, has a plan to overhaul college education—by embedding its artificial intelligence tools in every facet of campus life. If the company’s strategy succeeds, universities would give students A.I. assistants to help guide and tutor them from orientation day through graduation. Professors would provide customized A.I. study bots for each class. Career services would offer recruiter chatbots for students to practice job interviews. And undergrads could turn on a chatbot’s voice mode to be quizzed aloud ahead of a test. |
| Milla Surjadi, The Dallas Morning News SHARE: Facebook • LinkedIn Viridiana Carrizales spent last week speaking with panicked undocumented students and their parents. She met with students who were worried about affording their summer classes and a mother who vowed to get another job. Then there was a chemical engineering student who proposed taking one class a semester instead of three, and parents asking what scholarships their children should apply for. A day after Texas ended its in-state tuition rates at public universities for undocumented students, Carrizales, co-founder of a Dallas-based nonprofit dedicated to improving immigrants’ educational experiences, heard the same question over and over: Will we be able to pay for college? |
| Liam Knox, Inside Higher Ed SHARE: Facebook • LinkedIn From the rise of artificial intelligence in college classrooms to the rapid politicization of campus life, higher education has changed dramatically in just the past few years. So have the ways prospective students choose their future alma maters, according to a new report from enrollment management consulting firm EAB. The report, which draws from three recent surveys of roughly 40,000 high school and first-year college students, found that students’ priorities in choosing which colleges to apply to are evolving, as are the best practices for reaching and recruiting them. |
| Jon Marcus, The Hechinger Report SHARE: Facebook • LinkedIn Joshua Alferos was just two semesters away from earning his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering when he ran out of money. Then he heard about a new, experimental program run by philanthropies and private businesses that would loan him what he needed to finish school at zero interest and with no fees. The debt wouldn’t come due until he earned a minimum salary, and his employer would likely help him pay it off. One of the best parts of the program: the money goes back into a pool to replicate the same support for future students. |
| Maddie Aiken, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette SHARE: Facebook • LinkedIn College consultant Scott White sees international student enrollment as the “lifeblood” of the financial health of many universities. But between recent threats to Chinese student visas, temporary revocation of thousands of international students’ records, and a travel ban on nationals from 12 countries that went into effect this week, colleges in the Pittsburgh region and across the United States could see the Trump administration directly or indirectly impact that lifeblood. |
| Ryan Luetkemeyer, Nebraska Public Media SHARE: Facebook • LinkedIn Rudy Valentino Johnson has spent much of his adult life incarcerated. A program launched in March 2024 allowed him to leave the Community Corrections Center in Lincoln and take classes at Southeast Community College. After nearly two decades, Johnson finished his prison sentence, finally getting the education he craved inside the Nebraska prison system. Johnson's journey to earn an education behind bars wasn’t straightforward. Over the years, the 45-year-old says he's watched as prison staff confiscated his college materials, disbanded study groups—labeling them as “gang activity”—and expressed overall disapproval of incarcerated people getting an education. |
| Christa Dutton, The Chronicle of Higher Education |
| Lilah Burke, Higher Ed Dive |
| Greg DeSantis and Meena Naik, Jobs for the Future |
| Candice Wilder and Devna Bose, Mississippi Today |
| Cheyanne Mumphrey, The Associated Press |
| Maya Dunson, The Columbus Dispatch |
| J Oliver Conroy, The Guardian |
| Kathryn Palmer, Inside Higher Ed |
| Piper Hutchinson, Louisiana Illuminator |
| Joe Ulery, Public News Service |
| Courtney Tanner, The Salt Lake Tribune |
| Nathaniel Cline, Virginia Mercury |
| Elliott Davis Jr., U.S. News & World Report |
| Lily Kepner, Austin American-Statesman |
| Jennifer Juárez and Rebecca Vonderlack-Navarro, Crain's Chicago Business |
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