Tag: Career

A New Vision for Learning Evaluation
A recent study examining credit evaluation across five public community colleges and universities found pronounced pain points for both learners and the campus personnel supporting them in evaluating their coursework and other college-level learning. In their own words, learners described the process with frustration, resignation, and, at times, outright indignation:
- A community college transfer student described the process of having their previous courses evaluated as a “six- to eight-month battle” that soured the joy of transfer admission and sent them on a wild goose hunt to track down prior course materials to prove their worth. “I had to fight with my department and contact all of my old professors from my community college and get syllabi and [approval] took so long … I had to send it back three times.”
- A learner transferring from a private university expressed the heightened anxiety they experienced in the process and the high stakes at hand: “I think maybe three of my courses transferred over two years. I submitted like over 20 petitions just to get my credits to transfer over … it’s been a little bit difficult and really stressful because my program specifically kicks you out if you don’t graduate in two years.”
- A student working full-time who sought a prior learning assessment, only to be met with silence and delays over the course of a year, spoke frankly: “My faith … dropped each semester and I got to the point of acceptance, like, ‘Oh, it’s OK. I’ll just take the classes again … It’s gonna be easy because I’ve already taken them before. I’ll be fine. I won’t have to study as much.’ But yeah, it’s just extra classes that I could have minimized.”
- A community college student who learned after being accepted and deciding to enroll that they would have to go back and take additional general education courses: “I was upset because when I got here, they were like, ‘You need more GE requirements.’ And I was like, ‘What did I do all that work for? Why did you accept me, if I needed more GE requirements?’”
These firsthand accounts demonstrate a painful truth: Learning evaluation decisions shape learners’ trajectories. A decision to not award credit can add time and money to a learner’s educational path and ultimately impact whether they decide to continue. Indeed, a national poll of adult Americans by Public Agenda for Beyond Transfer found that negative credit transfer experiences can erode trust in higher education and even dissuade adults from pursuing a college credential altogether.

Such data should be a clarion call to higher education. Too often, though, it is treated like background noise. This is why we came together nearly 18 months ago to launch the Learning Evaluation and Recognition for the Next Generation Commission (co-convened by Sova and the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers), and why this week we issued our final report outlining a robust set of actions for institutional, state and system leaders to dramatically transform learning evaluation policy and practice.

Taking up the commission’s charge was a pointed call to action for each of us, who in our varied roles as campus administrators, registrars, former faculty, student success professionals, researchers, accreditor leaders and advocates have dedicated our careers to expanding postsecondary opportunity and attainment. From our own firsthand knowledge and collective experience, we readily understood some of the challenges beleaguering learning evaluation. As discussed in this column last fall, learning evaluation at most institutions—including institutions of all levels and sizes—is a highly manual and decentralized process riddled with inefficiency, inconsistency and a lack of transparency.

Yet, we were still struck by what we uncovered. Drawing on AACRAO’s broad research base, the LEARN Commission reviewed national transfer student outcomes data, institutional survey insights and findings from qualitative studies to assemble a full picture of the many challenges, untapped potential and missed opportunities that abound. The public can access the full set of green papers that guided our work on the commission’s webpage.

Based on the evidence, we reached an important conclusion: Learning evaluation is working exactly as it was designed—to control and limit credential-applicable credit because of the assumption that some learning is inherently of lesser quality.

Thus, any effort to change learning evaluation requires a collective willingness to confront the unspoken norms that regularly devalue certain types of learning, including what community college students and adult learners bring to the table. Focusing on structural change (i.e., changing policies and resource flows) alone without considering relational and transformational change (i.e., changes in human relationships, power dynamics and mental modes) will not shift the conditions that hold the status quo in place.

The LEARN Commission calls on institutions and systems to start with a shift in mindsets: All involved should seek to maximize credential applicability and embrace the assumption that a learner is prepared for additional education unless proven otherwise. We outline specific recommendations to make this significant shift, including:
1. Base decisions to award and apply credit on learning outcomes alignment of at least 70 percent, without invoking additional criteria. Additional criteria do little to preserve academic quality and could introduce bias.
2. When learning outcomes do not overlap by at least 70 percent, prioritize evidence of whether learners are prepared enough for subsequent coursework and provide appropriate support to promote student success, as needed.
3. Collect and use student outcome data to continually refine evaluation processes, learning outcome goals, curricular pathways, classroom pedagogy and student support services.
4. Once an institution decides to award and apply credit, that decision should set a precedent for all future learners (unless substantive curricular changes occur).
An additional set of 10 recommendations that accompany these addresses the elements of strong institutional policy design and resource allocations needed to make this shift in practice. The report outlines ways that institutions, systems and states are advancing these ideas in the real world to provide further guidance on where we can start.

And, while we recognize the significant power and decision-making authority that institutional, state and system leaders already hold, we also recognize that for institutions to accelerate this work at scale, we must activate other stakeholders across the full ecosystem—including policymakers, higher education associations and technical assistance providers, private philanthropy, and institutional accreditors. The report discusses three specific levers to do so:
1. Enhancing student data and technology systems
2. Investing in human capital
3. Building supportive policy conditions
We invite all stakeholders to read the report and, in the months ahead, will ask how we can partner to support your efforts to make change.

The LEARN Commission is convened by AACRAO and Sova as part of the Beyond Transfer initiative. The LEARN Commission and Beyond Transfer are generously supported by Ascendium Education Group, ECMC Foundation and the Kresge Foundation.
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December 11, 2025
Texas Tech Gathers Info on Race, Gender Course Content

Once faculty submit their responses, they will be compiled into spreadsheets by college, which department chairs and deans will review.

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As promised in a memo from the chancellor earlier this month, some Texas Tech University system faculty members were asked this week to report whether any course they teach “advocates for or promotes” specific race, gender or sexual identities. It is the latest step in a sweeping curricular review focused on limiting discussion of transgender identity, racism and sexuality across the five-campus public system.

By 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 22, faculty members at Angelo State University must fill out a survey for each class they teach. In addition to the course title and reference number, the survey asks the following questions: “Does this course include any content that advocates for or promotes race- or sex-based prejudice, as defined in the Chancellor’s memorandum? Does this course include any content that recognizes or discusses more than two sexes (male and female), or addresses gender identity beyond what is recognized under state and federal law? Does this course include any content related to sexual orientation?”

If a faculty member answers yes to any of those questions, they are then prompted to answer, “What is the course material required for? Check all that apply,” and select from the options “professional licensure/certification,” “accreditation,” “patient/client care” and “other.” Faculty must also provide a justification statement to support their response and are asked to “be as specific as possible.”

Once faculty submit their responses, they will be compiled into spreadsheets by college, which department chairs and deans will review. They then must report the outcomes to the president and provost, Angelo State University provost Don Topliff said in an email to all faculty. “Faculty will be notified of outcomes after approval,” he wrote. It is unclear exactly what curricular changes the outcomes will prompt.

Faculty at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center received a similar email this week, a faculty member told Inside Higher Ed. But instead of filling out a survey, they are being asked to enter the same information directly into a spreadsheet. A faculty member at Texas Tech’s flagship campus in Lubbock said faculty there have yet to receive any information beyond the chancellor’s Dec. 1 memo. Spokespeople for the Texas Tech system did not answer Inside Higher Ed’s questions about whether faculty at the remaining two institutions—Midwestern State University and Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso—received a survey.

“Across the System, institutions are expected to follow the established course content review process. As outlined in the Chancellor’s December 1 memorandum, department chairs and deans will review any materials used locally, with outcomes shared with the Provost and President to ensure consistency moving forward,” a spokesperson wrote in an email.

In an email about the survey to his colleagues in the Angelo State history department, chair Jason Pierce encouraged them to answer no for all three questions.

“When I filled those forms out, I put ‘no’ for all of my classes, because I do not think talking about any of these issues is advocacy or promotion,” Pierce told Inside Higher Ed. “Also, in my history from the Civil War to present class, there is no way to not talk about Reconstruction, civil rights, the women’s movement. I mean, those are in every textbook … So I don’t feel like I even need to fill out a form saying that I’m going to talk about Reconstruction or civil rights or whatever, because I’m telling people what happened. I’m not advocating for a particular viewpoint.”

He linked the system’s crackdown to broader trends in the sector.

“There’s a deep distrust of higher ed right now across the political spectrum, but particularly on the right,” said Pierce. “There’s this misconception that the professors want to go out and brainwash their students, and I can say, as a history professor, I don’t want my students coming out of my class thinking like I think. I want them to come out of my class thinking for themselves.”

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December 11, 2025
International Students Afraid Under the Trump Administration

The vast majority of students surveyed reported feeling “moderately,” “very” or “extremely” fearful about their visa status.

Photo illustration by Justin Morrison/Inside Higher Ed | aapsky/iStock/Getty Images | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

A new national survey from Stop AAPI Hate, a coalition dedicated to fighting discrimination against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, found that international students are experiencing heightened fear and uncertainty under the Trump administration.

The survey, released Wednesday, drew on quantitative and qualitative data from 87 graduate and undergraduate international students from 36 U.S. colleges and universities.

It found that more than half of respondents, 53 percent, felt “not at all safe.” About 88 percent reported feeling a decreased sense of belonging and said they were holding back from political engagement, and 86 percent changed how they use social media out of fear. The majority, 90 percent, reported feeling “moderately,” “very” or “extremely” fearful about their visa status.

Students detailed their fears further in qualitative responses, including one that expressed fear of “being kidnapped by ICE without due process, being disappeared into the detention system, [and] being denied healthcare if detained.” Others described fears about family members being whisked away or about disrupted academic and career trajectories. Chinese students in particular raised concerns about being surveilled and targeted as a national security threat, invoking Japanese Americans’ incarceration during World War II, according to the report.

Respondents reported that campuses offered supports including mental health care, travel guidance and updates about student visa policies, but 48 percent said campuses didn’t provide guidance about how to complete their studies and 38 percent lacked legal aid resources.

Students also discouraged others from coming to the U.S. for their studies.

“Run, don’t come,” one student wrote.

“America is no longer the land for dreams,” said another.

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December 11, 2025
House Hearing Highlights Potential of Skills Transcripts

Republicans and Democrats showed rare agreement in a House committee meeting on Wednesday, putting their support behind digital skills transcripts that they say will make the economy more efficient and make education more skills-centered.

“This is a game changer,” said Rep. Burgess Owens, the Utah Republican who chairs the subcommittee.

The hearing shined a spotlight on the wonky world of learning and employment records, or LERs, and explored how to ensure they are available nationwide. It also progressed the conversation on workforce readiness, a bipartisan topic and an issue that has received heightened attention from House Republicans.

Students in the U.S. have access to more than 1.8 million credentials, but navigating those options can be challenging. At the same time, employers say they are struggling to find workers with the right skills for open jobs.

Although they are not a new idea, more associations, states and experts are turning to LERs as a way to better connect job seekers and employers. For instance, Western Governors University, which has had an LER platform since 2019, recently announced the WGU Achievement Wallet to help students track their skills and connect those to available jobs. A skills-based transcript is at the core of a new platform from the Educational Testing Service that Brandeis University and California State University campuses are piloting. To help boost adoption of LERs, the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers last year launched the LER Accelerator Coalition.

These LERs “enable career mobility based on proven ability, not pedigree,” Western Governors president Scott Pulsipher told lawmakers at the hearing.

“When readiness is signaled through verified skills, opportunities expand to include those who might have been overlooked,” he said. “Few things are more profoundly human than enabling individuals to pursue a self-determined life. LERs, while seemingly abstract, exist for that purpose. They translate what individuals know and can do into real opportunity.”

Other witnesses said Congress can better help grow LERs by providing funding and encouraging states to create them. They also want lawmakers to require common open data standards, so the LERs are transparent and can be used across platforms.

“LERs only matter if people can use them,” said Scott Cheney, the CEO of Credential Engine. “If they’re trapped in proprietary systems, they do little for learners, workers or employers.”

Hearings like this offer some insight into lawmakers’ priorities and can lead to legislation. Since passing a landmark bill to overhaul student loans, the House education committee has delved into college pricing, alleged bias in the Truman scholarship, innovation in higher ed and campus antisemitism.

For Republicans, the LERs are a way to build on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which expanded the Pell Grant to short-term job training programs, and to support efforts to drop degree requirements.

Owens noted that short-term credentials, work-based learning and apprenticeships are increasing “as we shift away from the ‘college-for-all’ mentality and toward a skills-first approach.”

“LERs are the future,” said Owens, who played a video he narrated that explained how digital transcripts work.

Democrats pointed to the need to help workers advance their skills and navigate the labor market, citing rising unemployment numbers and slow job growth.

“LERs have the potential to make our economy more efficient, more equitable and more productive,” said Rep. Alma Adams, a North Carolina Democrat who serves as the subcommittee’s ranking member. “Employers are becoming overwhelmed with job applications containing limited information about the candidates’ skills, all of which can be hard to verify. Far too many employers have fallen into the habit of requiring college degrees for jobs that do not necessarily require them, effectively shutting out talented and qualified individuals who have the skills but not the diploma.”

But Adams and other Democrats worried about the data privacy in these online systems and said they want to see safeguards to protect workers. They also want to guarantee that workers have control over their data.

“We must ensure that a shift to learning and employment records does not enable an infringement on worker rights, increase discrimination or widen achievement and income gaps,” Adams said.

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December 11, 2025
Who Benefits From Direct Admissions, in 5 Charts

Some direct-admissions programs admit all students who fit certain criteria, while others seek out students based on particular traits.

Photo illustration by Justin Morrison/Inside Higher Ed | Prostock-Studio/iStock/Getty Images

Direct admissions, the practice by which colleges extend offers of admissions to students without them submitting an application, has become increasingly popular.

About 15 states now have their own programs, which typically involve extending admissions offers to qualifying high school seniors in the state—or, for some open-access institutions, to all graduating seniors. Meanwhile, a handful of private companies and nonprofits have launched platforms in recent years to allow institutions to send out offers to students around the country.

Such programs aim to help colleges boost enrollment and reach students who may otherwise not have applied to those institutions—and research shows that they’ve proven successful in those goals.

But what kinds of institutions utilize direct admissions and which students accept direct-admissions offers? Niche, a college rankings company whose direct admissions product launched as a pilot in 2022, shared data about its Class of 2029 direct-admissions enrollees with Inside Higher Ed, providing a glimpse into the demographics, majors and locations of those students.

“I think in this day and age of mobile, social media, AI—it’s just getting harder and harder to reach students and break through the noise,” said Luke Skurman, Niche’s CEO. “This is very in tune with [students’ expectations]. They’re used to pressing a button, having an Uber show up at their home, having food being delivered to their home. They like it being instantaneous. They like it being simple, transparent. I think there are institutions that really believe this is a natural evolution for this demographic.”

Over a million students received offers from the 145 participating institutions last year. That number is likely to grow this admissions cycle; over 160 partner institutions have already extended offers to over 770,000 students. (The Common App, which in 2021 launched its direct-admissions offering that focuses on first-generation and low- and middle-income students, reported that 119 participating universities extended offers last year to 733,000 students. This year, the number of institutions jumped to 213.)

But experts have noted that direct-admissions services run by private companies lack some of the benefits provided by state’s direct-admissions programs. Jennifer A. Delaney, an education professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who researches direct admissions, said in an interview that effective direct-admissions programs shouldn’t require students to take any steps to receive any admissions offers—including filling out a profile, as Niche requires.

Over all, enrollments through Niche’s platform this fall accounted for 11 percent of all enrollments at participating institutions, with each institution enrolling a median of 60 students through direct admissions. Inside Higher Ed broke it all down in five charts below.

Colleges admitted higher rates of nonwhite and first-gen students through direct admissions.

About 60 percent of students who enrolled through the Niche direct-admissions tool this year were students of color, while about 43 percent were first-generation. Among students at those same institutions who enrolled through other means, 48 percent were students of color and 34 percent were first-generation.

Colleges using direct admissions are mostly, but not exclusively, private.

Of the students who enrolled via Niche’s tool, a majority—69 percent—enrolled at private institutions.

Damien Snook, Niche’s director of product analytics, said that the types of institutions that use the service range significantly from flagship institutions, albeit generally in smaller states, down to tiny religious colleges. Most are not selective but aren’t open access, either.

“What we see from our direct-admissions partner more or less mirrors national trends. We do kind of meet that Goldilocks zone,” he said.

At public institutions, enrollments from direct admissions made up a slightly smaller share—8 percent—of new fall 2025 enrollments compared to 12 percent among private institutions.

Where is direct admissions most popular?

California, Pennsylvania and Texas are the most common states for direct-admissions enrollees to hail from. That statistic isn’t entirely surprising, considering they are among the most populous states. They’re also the three most popular destinations for direct-admissions students, though Pennsylvania ranks higher than California on that list.

Some of the areas where the product has been most successful, such as the Midwest, are where institutions that piloted and beta tested the tool found success, Snook said. They’re also areas that are projected to see decreased numbers of high school graduates in the coming years, meaning institutions may be looking to draw students from other areas of the country, which Niche’s tool allows them to do.

Health majors reign supreme, but direct admissions students span a variety of majors.

Unlike state direct-admissions programs, colleges on Niche’s platform can pick and choose students by attributes like intended major or location.

“Some lean into the territories that they’re already established in, so they’ll search for students in their state, or they’ll lean into ‘I’m a tech school and I’m looking for students that are interested in STEM majors.’ But we also have institutions that do the opposite, who say, ‘We’re good at recruiting in our backyard, but where we really want help is our secondary market,’” said Snook.

The trends in students’ majors mirror overall, national data trends, with the Niche data showing a slight decline in those studying computer science and an increase in those pursuing health degrees.

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December 11, 2025
Employers Confident in How Higher Ed Is Preparing Students

Employers prefer to hire graduates who have participated in applied, hands-on experiences.

Jason Ardan/The Citizens’ Voice/Getty Images

While fewer than half of Americans have confidence in higher education, new data shows that 85 percent of employers believe colleges and universities are adequately preparing students for the workforce. And they especially value degrees from institutions that emphasize constructive dialogue and disagreement.

Those are two of the big takeaways from “The Agility Imperative: How Employers View Preparation for an Uncertain Future,” a new report the American Association of Colleges and Universities published Thursday. In the ninth iteration of the report since 2006, the group commissioned Morning Consult to survey 1,030 executives and hiring managers in August about their attitudes toward higher education.

“This is our strongest case yet that the separation between workforce and civic skills is false,” said Ashley Finley, author of the report and vice president for research at AAC&U. “In the face of a public narrative that questions the value of college education, employers are higher education’s biggest fans. They value the ways in which colleges are preparing students to be nimble and agile for an uncertain future.”

‘Avoiding Groupthink’

According to the survey, 94 percent of employers said it’s equally important for colleges to prepare a skilled and educated workforce and to help students become informed citizens; 92 percent said it’s also important for colleges to create an environment where students of all backgrounds feel supported and to help them engage with and serve their communities. And 96 percent of employers said it’s useful for college graduates to be able to engage in constructive dialogue across disagreement; 80 percent are confident colleges and universities are helping students develop those skills.

“Employers want people who can grapple with differences of opinion because they know that strengthens the workplace,” Finley said. “Diverse teams are often the most effective because it’s through the process of disagreement that they arrive at better solutions by avoiding groupthink.”

Those results come at a time of intensified scrutiny and skepticism about the value of higher education from both the general public and policymakers. According to a survey the Pew Research Center published in October, 70 percent of Americans believe higher education is generally “going in the wrong direction,” citing high costs, poor preparation for the job market and lackluster development of students’ critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

In addition to focusing on career and technical education and using postgraduation earnings as the primary metric of a degree’s value, the Trump administration and its allies in Congress and state legislatures are also policing university curricula and faculty speech. Over the past year, political pressure has led numerous institutions—including Texas A&M University and the University of Oklahoma—to suspend or fire faculty and administrators who made comments that conflict with certain conservative viewpoints on race, gender and other topics.

But that’s not the type of learning environment most employers, regardless of political affiliation or age, want graduates to come from, according to the report.

Eighty-five percent of employers—including 90 percent of Democrats, 75 percent of Independents, 83 percent of Republicans, 87 percent of those under age 40 and 74 percent of those over age 50—said they would look more favorably upon a degree from an institution known for respecting diverse perspectives on political, economic and social issues in the curriculum. Additionally, 82 percent of respondents—including 83 percent of Democrats, 78 percent of Independents, 83 percent of Republicans, 85 percent of those under age 40 and 74 percent over age 50—said they would look more favorably upon a degree from an institution that’s not subject to government restrictions on what students learn and discuss.

The share of employers who strongly agreed with those statements has also increased by several percentage points since 2023, when the previous iteration of the survey asked the same questions.

“So much of workforce preparedness in the next few decades is going to involve durable skills amid the rapid proliferation of artificial intelligence,” Lynn Pasquerella, president of AAC&U, said. “We need to train individuals who can engage across differences and bring skills, competencies and dispositions computers can’t bring. That involves directly the capacity to engage with others who are different from oneself.”

In addition to valuing degrees that promote open inquiry, more than three-quarters of employers said they were more likely to hire graduates who participated in applied, hands-on experiences while in college, including internships, holding leadership roles or working on community-based projects. And 81 percent of employers said microcredentials are also valuable when they’re making hiring decisions.

“Employers are looking for more than just transcripts. They want portfolios and demonstrations of applied skills and competencies,” Pasquerella said. “The more colleges can do to provide a more comprehensive, complete picture of students’ abilities inside and outside the classroom, the more confidence they can create with employers.”

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December 11, 2025
Youngkin Loses Battle Over Board Picks

Governor-elect Spanberger will now get to select 22 board members.

Matt McClain/The Washington Post/Getty Images

The legal battle over whether Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin’s university board appointees will take their seats is over after a judge set a trial for 2026, Virginia Business reported. Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger will assume office next month, rendering the lawsuit moot.

The case will be dismissed, shutting down an effort to install the Republican governor’s board picks, many of whom had previously worked for or donated to the GOP and were rejected by Virginia Democrats. Now Spanberger, a Democrat, will be able to name 22 board members that otherwise would have been appointed by Youngkin, giving her the opportunity to shift the political balance of boards away from the right.

Youngkin and Attorney General Jason Miyares had sought to expedite the legal fight by asking Virginia’s Supreme Court to review a lower court ruling that determined that blocked board picks could not take their seats. Youngkin has argued the board appointments must be rejected by the full Senate, not just the Democrat-led Privileges and Elections Committee, which voted down multiple picks.

However, Virginia’s Supreme Court declined to hear the case, remanding it to a lower court.

Spanberger and state Democrats are expected to quickly fill multiple vacancies that have left boards hobbled, including at George Mason University, which does not have a quorum. GMU’s board met recently, despite the lack of a quorum and legal questions about their ability to do so.

Youngkin’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Inside Higher Ed.

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December 11, 2025
ED Seeks Public Comment on Accreditation Reform
President Trump signed an executive order in April to reform accreditation.

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Reforming the accreditation process has been a key focus for the Trump administration. Officials from the Education Department reinforced that Wednesday when they announced a request for information to solicit public feedback on updating the accreditation handbook.

The aim, the department said in a news release, is to reduce “unduly burdensome and bureaucratic requirements” and increase “transparency and efficiency.”

“Instead of driving high-quality programs that better serve students, the antiquated accreditation system has led to inflated tuition costs and fees, administrative bloat, and ideology-driven initiatives at colleges across the country,” Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education David Barker said. “We are excited to receive feedback on how best to update the Handbook, streamline guidance, and eliminate bureaucratic headaches for accrediting agencies and associations.”

The request falls in line with an April executive order to “reform and strengthen” the accreditation system. It also comes less than a week before the next meeting of the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity, the group that weighs in on accreditation issues and reviews accrediting agencies.

The department is planning to draft new rules and regulations for accreditors sometime next year.

Commenters will have 45 days to provide feedback on the following questions:
- What policies or standards are encouraging innovation or reducing college costs within the postsecondary education sector and should be retained in or added to the new version of the handbook?
- How can the handbook be designed to be less burdensome?
- Is the handbook serving its intended purpose?
- How can it better assist accrediting agencies and associations in evaluating the quality of educational institutions and programs or in applying for federal recognition?
- How could accreditation standards be updated to incentivize intellectual diversity on campus?
- What guidance or standards, if any, can the handbook provide to institutions and programs to help achieve this goal?
- What methods should be incorporated into the handbook to determine appropriate assessment benchmarks, and what data sources or validation methods could be used to ensure those benchmarks reflect student competency?
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December 11, 2025
College Students Stress About Cost of Living Postgraduation

Graduation typically brings feelings of jubilation, but with the high cost of living and a competitive job market facing college graduates, students report feeling more anxious about their future prospects.

A recent Student Voice survey by Inside Higher Ed and Generation Lab found that nearly one in five college students say their top stressor is affording life after graduation. A similar share worry that they don’t have enough internship or work experience to be successful. 

The survey, fielded in August, includes responses from over 5,000 college students, including 1,000 two-year and nearly 2,000 first-generation college students. 

“Stability is really important to this generation of job-seekers,” said Shawn VanDerziel, chief executive officer at the National Association of Colleges and Employers, citing the organization’s own student surveys. “For the last several years, students regularly report to us that, in their first job, the most important thing is stability.”

That means having a reasonable living standard as well as an employer who provides sufficient benefits, work-life balance and assurances against layoffs, VanDerziel said.

Christine Cruzvergara, chief education officer of the job board Handshake, said the trend doesn’t surprise her because it mirrors similar data her organization collected earlier this year, which found that AI, changes to federal policy and a competitive job market are among the factors impeding students’ confidence after graduation.

“The cost-of-living piece is very real,” Cruzvergara said. “That is, anecdotally, something that we do hear from students, even in the four-year space: ‘Everything is so expensive; I don’t know how I’m going to be able to live.’”

Nationally, the American public is feeling strained financially. A recent McKinsey survey found that 45 percent of consumers said “rising prices or inflation” is their top concern; an additional 24 percent pointed to their “ability to make ends meet,” and 19 percent cited job security and unemployment.

“I know no one is going to hire me in an economy like this,” one student at New Mexico State University–Dona Ana wrote in the “other” response option on the Student Voice survey.

The cost-of-living squeeze has pushed more graduates to consider housing and grocery prices when selecting a city to live in.

“In the past, you may have found other things that have risen to the top, like vibrant nightlife, environmental issues, recreation. All those things are still on the list, but cost of living is No. 1 in the minds of graduates today,” VanDerziel said.

Handshake has seen more applicants looking toward smaller markets, or “B-list cities,” for their first destination after college, “because you might be able to get a good enough job that you can actually have the quality of life that you’re looking for at the same time,” Cruzvergara said.

Internships needed: Students’ perception that they lack skills and experience points to a growing need for higher education leaders to provide work-based learning to prepare students for the workforce. Some institutions now guarantee experiential learning or internships as part of their strategic plans, Cruzvergara said.

“I’m pleased to hear that students are concerned about internship opportunities, because that tells me that they are in tune with what’s happening in the world and the fact that employers see internship experience as being the best of everything,” VanDerziel said.

Four-year students are more likely to have enrolled in college directly after graduating from high school, which could explain why this group of students is more likely to fret about their lack of work experience, Cruzvergara said.

“If they didn’t do an internship, or they only did a part-time job in the summer, they might feel as if they’re at a disadvantage because they haven’t been in a more traditional white-collar work environment,” Cruzvergara said. 

Older students (25 and up) or those who have worked full-time were less likely to cite anxieties over a lack of work or internship experience, despite being statistically less likely to complete an internship while in college. Handshake data from earlier this year found that about one in eight students have not participated in an internship and do not expect to before finishing their degree, in large part due to time constraints caused by other work or homework, or because they weren’t selected for an internship role.

While some employers value all work equally, others believe it’s important for students to have work experiences specific to their intended professions, VanDerziel said.

A soft landing: College and university career centers can help address some of students’ anxieties about graduation by connecting them to employers the traditional way at career fairs, Cruzvergara said.

“In the face of emerging AI in more industries, roles and sectors, I actually find that what’s become really quite popular again for students in order to get a job or an internship is good old-fashioned networking,” Cruzvergara said.

Attendance at networking and employer-led events hosted on Handshake (either virtual or for registration purposes) has tripled this year, according to the job board’s data.

“I know it’s not new; career centers have been doing this for a long time, but do we need to do it more? Do we need to do it in a different way?” Cruzvergara said.

Colleges should also consider their own departments as employers to host interns.

“The school is a business in and of itself that has all these different functions,” Cruzvergara pointed out. “So how are you creating an internship within your own finance department? How are you creating an internship within your own legal department?”

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December 10, 2025
Rümeysa Öztürk Returns to Teaching and Research

Union workers in Los Angeles protest Öztürk’s arrest on April 1, 2025.

Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

Rümeysa Öztürk, a Tufts University Ph.D. student from Turkey who was arrested by immigration officials earlier this year, is returning to teaching and research months after her release from detention, multiple sources reported.

Öztürk garnered national attention for being one of the first students swept up in the Trump administration’s attack on international students who had expressed pro-Palestinian beliefs; she had co-authored an op-ed in the student newspaper calling on Tufts to condemn Israel’s attacks on Gaza. Though she was released from detention in May, her status in the Student Exchange and Visitor Information System, a digital records system of international student information, was not restored, preventing her from teaching or engaging in research for months.

U.S. District Judge Denise J. Casper granted Öztürk’s request for a preliminary injunction restoring her SEVIS status on Monday. The judge agreed that the termination of her records had caused “irreparable harm” by preventing her from accessing employment, professional development and doctoral training in the last year of her Ph.D. program.

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December 10, 2025