Peterson’s attended this year’s SHEEO Higher Education Policy Conference and came away with a familiar takeaway: the most valuable conversations weren’t about isolated policy issues. They were about how multiple forces are converging to reshape the postsecondary landscape.
Whether the discussion centered on state finance, student success, artificial intelligence, or workforce development, one theme surfaced again and again: higher education needs better information to make better decisions.
Here are five topics that stood out.
Workforce Pell Is Moving From Policy Debate to Implementation
The expansion of Pell Grants to short-term workforce programs has the potential to change how students, institutions, employers, and states think about postsecondary education.
The conversation has shifted. It’s no longer simply whether Workforce Pell should exist — it’s how it should work in practice:
- Which programs will qualify?
- How will quality be evaluated?
- How will students distinguish between high-value and low-value credentials?
- What information will policymakers need to monitor outcomes?
As the credential landscape grows more complex, transparency becomes more important, not less. Students need to understand what they’re enrolling in. Institutions need visibility into their competitive landscape. States need reliable data to evaluate whether new investments are producing meaningful workforce outcomes.
Credentials of Value Is Becoming a Policy Conversation in Its Own Right
As the number of credentials in the marketplace continues to grow, so does the conversation about which ones are actually worth pursuing.
Sessions increasingly treated “credentials of value” as a distinct policy question, separate from broader discussions of access or affordability. Recurring questions included:
- How should “value” be defined — earnings, employment outcomes, transferability, or some combination?
- Who is responsible for signaling value to students: institutions, states, employers, or third-party data providers?
- How can policymakers avoid rewarding credentials that look strong on paper but don’t translate to labor-market outcomes?
This conversation reinforced a point raised throughout the conference: value isn’t self-evident. It has to be measured, defined, and communicated — and that requires data connecting credentials to real outcomes, not just enrollment or completion counts.
Financial Pressure Across Higher Education Is Real
Financial sustainability was another recurring theme.
Across sectors, institutions continue to navigate enrollment volatility, demographic shifts, changing student expectations, and rising operating costs. The circumstances differ by institution and state, but few campuses are insulated from the pressure.
That reality makes strategic planning more important than ever. Institutional leaders increasingly need answers to questions like:
- Which programs are growing nationally?
- Where is student demand changing?
- What credentials are emerging in response to workforce needs?
- How are peer institutions adapting?
Answering those questions requires comprehensive, current, and comparable information across the credential marketplace.
AI Is No Longer a Future Conversation
Artificial intelligence was woven into discussions across nearly every session.
Rather than debating whether AI will affect higher education, conversations focused on how institutions can use it responsibly and effectively — in student advising, administrative efficiency, curriculum design, and institutional research.
But AI is only as valuable as the information that powers it. Without high-quality, structured, well-governed data, even the most sophisticated AI tools produce limited or misleading results.
The enthusiasm around AI reinforces something data professionals have known for years: data quality and governance are foundational capabilities, not back-office functions.
Data Has Become Strategic Infrastructure
Perhaps the strongest thread connecting these discussions was a growing recognition that data is no longer used just for reporting. It has become strategic infrastructure.
Good policy depends on good evidence. Effective institutional planning depends on trusted information. Student decision-making depends on transparent, accessible data — and all of it requires datasets that are comprehensive, current, and thoughtfully organized.
Why This Matters at Peterson’s
These conversations reinforced the importance of our work at Peterson’s Data.
Our credential dataset brings clarity to an increasingly complex postsecondary ecosystem. As the number and variety of credentials expand — from traditional degrees to certificates, microcredentials, apprenticeships, and workforce-focused programs — having a consistent, high-quality view of the credential landscape matters more every year.
The rising focus on credentials of value only reinforces this need. Value can’t be assessed in the abstract — it has to be grounded in data that connects credential types to cost, outcomes, and career pathways at scale.
A comprehensive credential dataset helps answer questions that matter to multiple audiences:
- Students exploring educational pathways
- Institutions evaluating program portfolios
- State agencies monitoring workforce investments
- Employers seeking alignment between education and labor market needs
- Researchers analyzing trends across the credential ecosystem
As policies like Workforce Pell take shape and institutions adapt to new economic realities, understanding the credential marketplace will become more important—and more valuable to the organizations that rely on it.
Looking Ahead
The conversations at SHEEO made one thing clear: higher education is entering another period of significant transformation. Policy innovation, financial pressure, advances in AI, and changing workforce expectations are reshaping how education is delivered and evaluated.
Organizations that invest in trusted data, and use it thoughtfully, will be best positioned to navigate that change.
The Peterson’s Research Team left the conference optimistic. Not because the challenges are small — they aren’t — but because states, institutions, and organizations are increasingly recognizing that better decisions begin with better information.
Curious how Peterson’s Data’s credential dataset can support your institution’s strategy? Connect with our team to learn more.