Lumina Foundation is committed to increasing the proportion of Americans with high-quality degrees, certificates and other credentials to 60 percent by 2025.
In the 52 years since the enactment of Title IX—the federal law prohibiting discrimination in education on the basis of sex—women have made tremendous strides in closing educational gaps that once seemed insurmountable.
Yet, despite the steady progress, women still lag in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—accounting for just 39 percent of bachelor’s degrees. Some colleges are taking note.
The Rivian Technical Trades program at Olive-Harvey College is a five-month training program where students learn the latest electric vehicle technologies inside the classroom and put those theories into practice with hands-on training.
Kyle Johnson is a graduate of the program. On this podcast, he describes how the accelerated learning effort fulfilled his needs as a returning student and put him on a clear pathway to a career in a high-growth industry. Olive-Harvey's Kimberly Hollingsworth joins the conversation with additional information on programs that are setting up students for immediate success and family sustaining wages.
Students in Montana apply for federal financial aid at strikingly low rates, limiting much-needed financial support as they embark on the road to higher education. In 2024, Montana’s Free Application for Federal Student Aid completion rate was 36 percent, compared to 44 percent nationally.
Education experts say several factors may explain the state's low FAFSA completion figures, including a lack of incentives to apply, knowledge barriers, and government distrust.
Leaders at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say its incoming class will be less diverse than in previous years. The class of 2028 will be made up of 16 percent Black, Hispanic, Native American or Pacific Islander students, compared with 25 percent enrollment among those groups in the years 2024 to 2027. The school attributes the drop to the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision that ended race-conscious admissions in American higher education.
Education reporter Suevon Lee discusses the new data in this interview.
Competition for talent is common in higher education. So is the reflex to bulk up the faculty in response to technological advances (look at, say, nanotechnology and genome science at the turn of the century).
But the sense of urgency, and the scale of recent hiring initiatives in artificial intelligence, is noticeably amplified. College leaders say there’s too much at stake not to build AI expertise into their teaching and research enterprises.
To Ryan Pina, going to college isn’t something he wants to do just for himself. It’s something he wants to achieve for his entire family.
Pina’s outlook is similar to many of the incoming class of students at the newly formed Messina College, a two-year associate degree program born out of Boston College. The college serves first-generation students with high financial needs at the former Pine Manor College campus in Brookline.
