Our research seeks to understand what students value about their educational experiences so we can better understand how to help them succeed through and beyond completion of certificates and degrees.
Research and Insights
Impact
Public Viewpoint
Alumni Survey
Philanthropy
Strategic Investments
HBCU Initiative
Beyond Completion Challenge
Through a combination of philanthropy and investments, we fund the xxx organizations and entrepreneurs who are driving new approaches that help students succeed by better connecting education and work.
Educators, employers, or policymakers can’t create systemwide change alone. So we work to bring them together to find mutually beneficial solutions that improve student outcomes and build a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workforce.
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We support organizations whose experience and visionary approaches complement our mission and address the different barriers facing today’s learners.
Provides work-based learning that help students gain skills while helping them pay for college.
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Supports adult learners and workers to gain credit for their current skills and to build skills for the future.
Provides one-on-one coaching to help individual students achieve their education and career goals.
Helps students explore careers and pathways to achieve their goals and tells the story of their journeys.
Phase 2 allows Taskforce members to seek up to $1.5 million ($6.25 million total) to expand efforts to connect education to employment.
Higher education’s measurement of student success is in the midst of an evolution. For nearly five decades, success efforts focused on access, then two decades with completion as the horizon for success, and now the focus is extending to student outcomes beyond completion.
At the innovative Rochester campus of the University of Minnesota, our vision is to “inspire transformation in higher education through innovations that empower graduates to solve the grand health challenges of the 21st century.”
Ducks Rise: Empowering Underrepresented Minorities and Low-Income Students Through Research Internships and Intentional Student Experiences
Developing In-Demand Skills Among Undergraduates for Better, More Equitable Post Completion Outcomes
Access to college isn’t enough. Neither is completion of degrees. It’s time to focus on outcomes
When Zaldwaynaka “Z” Scott became president of Chicago State University in 2018, things were in pretty dire straits: The state budget had been slashed, operations rolled back, and the university had gone years without permanent leadership.
Credit for prior learning helped Loyce Shelley see herself in a new way — and complete her degree.
Applied connections between education and work are increasingly a part of undergraduate education in the United States.
Millie Garcia understands the needs of first-generation college students because she was one. Now, as president of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, Millie advocates for students just like herself — a group she calls “the new majority” (low-income students, first-generation students, and students of color). She shares what she’s learned about the importance of diversifying higher ed, from students and faculty to the highest leadership positions on campus.
Disparities in securing paid internships persist for women, people of color, first-generation college students, and students with low incomes — even when taking into account their fields of study
Even before the pandemic, employers struggled to find the skilled labor they needed to fill jobs.
The labor market in the United States faces seemingly contradictory challenges: Many employers have trouble finding qualified applicants for current and future jobs, while millions of Americans are out of work or are underemployed—their paths to living-wage jobs blocked by systemic barriers or lack of adequate skills.
Two centuries after the first historically Black colleges and universities were founded, the 101 accredited HBCUs in operation today continue to deliver on their legacy of expanding educational opportunity for Black students that leads to successful and fulfilling lives.