Photo: Brandon Sullivan

The combination of students changing the way they consume postsecondary education and businesses desperate for skilled employees has led to a new wave of strategic business partnerships—with or without the proposed federal grants under consideration.

Indeed, experts are seeing an increase in partnerships that allow businesses to signal their needs and work directly with community colleges to meet them. 

Illustration: The Chronicle of Higher Education

Last fall, male undergraduate enrollment fell by nearly 7 percent, nearly three times as much as female enrollment. Men as a whole aren’t usually the group that comes to mind as needing a leg up. But for colleges, declining male enrollment means less viewpoint diversity in the classroom.

For the economy, it means fewer workers to fill an increasing number of jobs that require at least some college education—plus a future in which the workforce is split even more along gender lines.