Daily Lumina News 021121

Silver Wolf's five-year journey toward a bachelor's degree has taken her from a small private college to a community college, both in Pennsylvania, and then to the University of Massachusetts Boston. Each time she transferred, she hit the same snag: Her first school would not release her transcript because of unpaid bills. The two delays cost her a year when she could have been earning credits.
Because former students owe money, colleges are withholding transcripts from more than 6.6 million Americans who’ve transferred to another school or abandoned their pursuit of higher education. New research shows these debts total about $15 billion, but in most cases the balances owed are $25 or less.

Alyssa Kollgaard is a Los Angeles-based video game producer for Akupara Games. She's part of a fast-growing industry that has powered through the pandemic at a breakneck speed.
You can learn more about Kollgaard and what it takes to succeed in the world of video gaming in this video, which is part of a digital series on promising career paths for early-career workers of all education levels.

Three struggling campuses of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education plan to pursue an increasingly popular strategy in higher ed: building a new “virtual campus” that will educate working adults who have some college credit but no degree.
But competing with the established national players in online education presents a tall order. Still, some online providers say they welcome more efforts to educate adults, because the need is enormous.

The credential landscape is vast—and it continues to grow. A new report from Credential Engine shows 967,734 unique credentials in the United States. As in previous reports, the new research demonstrates the need to dramatically improve transparency in the credential marketplace to promote economic growth and individual mobility.
New in this report is a state-by-state breakdown of credentials offered by state-based entities in five categories: diplomas, certificates, degrees, apprenticeships, and licenses.

How bad is the pandemic-induced financial crisis for higher ed? Paul Friga, a clinical associate professor of strategy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's business school, offers answers—plus suggestions of strategies to overcome the losses—in this essay.

Metro Detroit is slipping in its effort to produce a well-educated workforce, a trend that could saddle the region's economy with fewer jobs, lower incomes, and slower growth.
Efforts to change that trajectory include the newly launched Reconnect Michigan program, which targets Michiganders who are 25 or older but don't yet have a degree or certificate. The program helps pay tuition at a local community college so they can obtain an associate's degree or other job certification.