Doug Lederman
July 20, 2026
Defining programs solely by graduates’ earnings isn’t ideal, but it’s where we are. A new report shows that it can be done, and how.
Bear with me for a moment and think of the changing landscape in postsecondary education in eras, à la Taylor Swift.
Higher education’s access era ran from the 1960s through the ’90s, as the Higher Education Act and Pell Grant encouraged colleges and universities to better live up to their promise to open doors to opportunity for all. The focus shifted to completion in the 2000s and early 2010s, driven by Lumina Foundation’s “big goal” and the Obama administration’s belief that postsecondary learning was valuable and that college without a credential could have disastrous consequences.
Over the last decade-plus, we embraced an emphasis on student success, defined by a broader definition of well-being and more focus on colleges’ own responsibility to help individual learners reach their goals in and outside the classroom.