Announcements & Commentary
It’s Time to Rethink Postsecondary Learning—Four Shifts to Start Now
By Maria Anguiano, Entrepreneur-in-Residence at College Futures Foundation
In my last post, I explored how outdated structures, seat-time requirements, fixed semesters, and in-person expectations create unnecessary barriers for today’s learners. The challenge, however, is even more structural. Our postsecondary system wasn’t designed for the world we live in now. It was designed for a different era, one where education was a one-time sprint, mostly completed by early adulthood. But today’s life isn’t linear, and learning can’t be either. What we need now is a system that supports a lifelong marathon of growth, reflection, and reinvention.
At the same time, we’re seeing growing skepticism about the value of a traditional college degree. When I ask people if a degree is necessary, I hear a wide range of responses. But when I ask if learning after high school is necessary, the answer is always yes. People recognize that continued learning is essential not just for jobs, but for navigating life, relationships, and civic engagement.
The data backs this up. Pew research finds that only 22 percent of adults say a four-year degree is worth the cost if loans are involved. Meanwhile, 85 percent of Americans, according to an ETS/Harris poll, believe lifelong upskilling will become the new norm. That gap between what people believe is necessary and what feels accessible or worthwhile tells us something critical: People aren’t rejecting education, they’re searching for a version of learning that works better for their lives. They want learning that feels relevant, responsive, and within reach, education that supports their goals, adapts to their needs, and respects the complexity of their everyday realities.
The rising interest in short-term programs, online certificates, and skills-based learning isn’t a side story, it’s a market signal. Learners today are balancing jobs, caregiving, and career pivots. They need education that is flexible, continuous, and responsive to real life. In a world that is changing faster than ever, our institutions must evolve just as quickly.
At its core, this isn’t a matter of performance, it’s a matter of design. If we want postsecondary education to be a true vehicle for equity and mobility, we need to rethink who it serves, how it works, and what it values. That means recognizing and validating learning wherever it happens, creating more flexible and stackable pathways, and supporting progress across an entire lifetime. A completed degree can’t be the only credential that counts anymore.
Here are four critical shifts we need to make to build a system that delivers opportunity throughout life:
1. Recognize all the ways people learn, beyond the classroom.
Learning doesn’t only happen in classrooms and learners are proving that every day. Whether they’re parenting, problem-solving at work, coding from YouTube tutorials, or leading in their communities, people are constantly building valuable skills. These experiences shape character, capability, and confidence. But unless those skills are recorded on a transcript, they’re often invisible in our formal systems.
To create a system that works for everyone, we need to expand what we count as learning and where it happens. That means developing ways to assess and credential real-world knowledge in ways that employers and institutions recognize and respect. This isn’t about lowering the bar. It’s about widening the frame so we can see people’s full potential, not just what fits into traditional academic boxes.
2. Design short-form credentials as first-class options.
More and more, learners are turning to short courses, certificates, and micro-credentials to skill up quickly and flexibly. These options are often more affordable, more relevant, and easier to fit into the realities of work and family life. Yet too often, these programs are treated as second tier: underfunded by policymakers, undervalued by employers, and overlooked by traditional institutions.
That perception has real consequences. When short-form learning isn’t well designed or clearly connected to opportunity, learners can waste time and money on programs that don’t lead anywhere. And society misses a vital tool for broadening access, accelerating reskilling, and expanding economic mobility.
We can do better. To build trust and value in these pathways, we need clear quality standards, transparent data, and strong links to employment. As the AEI report, Holding New Credentials Accountable for Outcomes by AEI report points out, only 12 percent of the 1.1 million credentials currently on the market lead to meaningful wage gains. That’s not a reason to abandon short-form credentials, it’s a reason to design them better and raise the bar.
Short-form credentials shouldn’t be side roads or detours. They can and should be intentionally embedded into degree pathways—serving as stackable building blocks that offer flexibility without compromising quality. When integrated with care and coherence, these credentials become powerful accelerators, enabling learners to make progress in ways that are visible, validated, and aligned with their long-term goals. They deserve the same level of credibility, support, and accountability as degrees.
3.Use technology to simplify what’s complex and humanize what matters most.
Today’s digital tools offer capabilities previous generations could only dream of: AI, real-time data, personalized learning platforms. But this moment isn’t about layering technology onto outdated models. It’s an opportunity to reimagine how we structure, deliver, and support learning from the ground up.
Imagine a system built around the learner from day one. A dynamic, personalized roadmap that shows what they know, what they need next, and where they want to go. A system that accommodates life’s detours and helps people build progress over time—across jobs, programs, and seasons of life. With portable records and responsive data, learners could chart their paths with more clarity, mobility, and choice.
But let’s be clear: no platform can replace what only humans can provide. Learners still need encouragement when the way forward feels uncertain. They need advisors, mentors, and teachers who bring lived experience, emotional insight, and genuine care. That’s the heart of a meaningful learning journey.
When we pair smart tools with real human connection—when we design technology to amplify, not replace—we create something powerful. A system that’s not just efficient, but empathetic. Not just scalable, but personal. The true promise of technology lies not in efficiency, but in its power to help us finally build a system that centers the learner.
4. Align policy and funding with a vision for lifelong learning.
The rules guiding our current system were written for a world where learning happened once, in a classroom, early in life. But that world is gone. Today, learning is ongoing, modular, and often happens outside traditional institutions. Yet our policies haven’t kept up.
Too many promising models remain stuck as pilots—not because they don’t work, but because the infrastructure around them wasn’t built to support them. Financial aid is still designed for full-time degree seekers. Transfer policies penalize movement. And most data systems only track what happens inside traditional programs, ignoring the growing ecosystem of learning beyond them.
To unlock the full potential of a lifelong learning ecosystem, we need policy and funding to match. That means updating financial aid to cover short-form, stackable programs. It means holding all credentials to the same standards of quality and value, whether they’re degrees or certificates. And it means building data systems that can follow learners across time, institutions, and learning formats.
This is not about discarding what we have, it’s about expanding our ability to support a wider, more diverse range of learners over a longer period of time. When policy and funding align with how people actually live, learn, and work, we create the conditions for lasting opportunity.
Where We Go From Here
There is no longer a question about whether our education system needs to change – it does. Public trust is eroding. Gallup reports a 20-point drop in confidence over the past decade. Learners are voting with their feet, enrollment in short-term programs is surging, while traditional college enrollment continues to decline. And it’s not because people have stopped valuing education, it’s because they’re looking for something more aligned with their lives, their goals, and their realities.
This isn’t a crisis , it’s a call to evolve. We have an opportunity, right now, to design something more generous, more inclusive, and more responsive—a system where learning never stops. Where opportunity isn’t tied to a single credential earned at a single point in time. Where progress is possible at any age and from any starting point. And where everyone, no matter their background, has a real shot at growth, mobility, and dignity across a lifetime.
The future of postsecondary learning will not be built by default. It must be built by design. The four shifts outlined in this piece are not exhaustive, but they are urgent. Together, they offer a foundation for a system that works better for more people, across more of their lives.
