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.
Women have outnumbered men on college campuses for decades, but the divide extends beyond who enrolls. Young men are also less likely than young women to earn a degree of any kind, raising questions about why some men are opting out of higher education and what colleges can do to better engage and support them.
The gap comes as colleges are confronting broader questions about the value of a degree, the rising cost of attendance, and whether traditional higher education is meeting the needs of today’s students. For institutions seeking to enroll and retain more men, the challenge is not only understanding what is keeping them from college but also identifying what changes could make higher education a more attractive and successful path.
For decades, U.S. colleges and universities have been regarded as among the best in the world. From the Ivy League to state research institutions, thousands of students and professors from around the globe flocked to America year after year to study, teach, and innovate.
International students represent about six percent of all higher education students—that's about 1.1 million. But last year, international student enrollment fell by a fifth compared to the year before. That’s the largest percentage change since the pandemic, according to federal data. How did the United States begin losing dominance in higher education? And what does the decline mean for students, faculty, and innovation in this country?
Walk onto almost any community college campus, and its workforce priorities are easy to see. Nursing students train in simulation labs. Welding students learn in well-equipped shops. Colleges invest in cybersecurity, electrical technology, HVAC, and advanced manufacturing because preparing students for these industries requires more than a classroom and a textbook.
Those investments make sense. But agriculture deserves the same conversation, says this professor at Collin College in Texas.
It appears to be a moment of introspection for some of the country’s best-known colleges. Last week, Cornell University published a report “on the future of the American university,” with diagnoses for the “unprecedented” “crisis” that the sector finds itself in. The report joins other self-studies published in the last few months, commissioned by the leaders of Yale University and Vanderbilt University and Washington University in St. Louis.
Together, the reports illustrate the challenges these universities face today. They also show the political and public pressures they’re under.
It has been a difficult job market for new graduates, especially in fields like software development where artificial intelligence is shouldering more of the work. While college students majoring in computer science during the recent coding boom were getting job offers without even applying, graduates today in philosophy, art history and ethnic studies majors all have higher employment rates.
But as the job market evolves with AI and entry-level jobs become harder to find, students and schools are adapting. Colleges are experimenting with business-specific internships and bolstering training in AI tools.
For many students, UC Santa Cruz’s picturesque campus plays a major part in their decision to attend the university. The campus is built on the foothills of the Santa Cruz mountains, meaning it sits on an upwards slant, gaining around 512 feet in elevation. Students entering campus often must trudge through dirt paths shaded by giant redwood trees and climb steep hills or stairs to get to the next destination.
But for students such as Annie Kepler, a cancer survivor who uses a wheelchair, navigating the sprawling campus is a much more arduous experience—so much so that it’s left the fourth-year microbiology major feeling “defeated.”
