What’s Keeping Presidents Up at Night in 2026

Presidents and their institutions are navigating immediate financial and political pressures while pursuing innovation to ensure long-term relevance, according to the Inside Higher Ed/Hanover Research 2026 Survey of Colleges and University Presidents, out today. Presidents (N=430) rate financial volatility (45 percent) and political interference (43 percent) as the fastest-growing risks to their institutions from a long list of pressures, with private nonprofit leaders especially concerned about finances. Public institution presidents are more worried about political interference: 71 percent of public doctoral university presidents, in particular, cite this as an accelerating risk.

On Tuesday, April 14, at 2 p.m. Eastern, Inside Higher Ed will present a free webcast to discuss the results of the 16th annual survey. Please register here—and plan on bringing your own questions about academic leadership in 2026.

Among all presidents, most report that the second Trump administration’s impact on higher education is exceeding their already low expectations. And they may have been especially unprepared for the administration’s approach to regulating the sector: In last year’s survey, 51 percent predicted negative impacts on the regulatory environment for higher education, but 81 percent describe actual negative impacts in 2026. But looking ahead to 2030, presidents tend to predict that artificial intelligence (48 percent) and cost pressures (45 percent)—not state and federal policy changes (27 percent)—will have the greatest impact on higher education.

Yet even as presidents recognize the significance of AI and elsewhere in the survey report increased enterprise-level adoption and strategizing, just 1 percent say that higher education has been a highly effective voice in important national conversations about the future of this technology.

Presidents and their institutions are also embracing workforce-aligned educational models, with 70 percent looking to add short-term credential programs over the next three years and more than a third pursuing co-ops (38 percent) or apprenticeship-based pathways (37 percent). Some 37 percent of all presidents and even 18 percent of community college leaders express interest in adding three-year bachelor’s degrees.

Even in a tough year, 92 percent of presidents agree that they enjoy their job, and a plurality (42 percent) hope to stay on the job five or more years—pushing back on reports that the presidency is becoming a job nobody wants. At the same time, just over half (55 percent) agree that the modern presidency is a job one person can reasonably handle. Amid the continued erosion of faculty tenure, roughly a third (36 percent) of all leaders agree their institution would be better off without it, while 68 percent say that shared governance at their institution works well.

This independent editorial survey was made possible by support from Liaison and Jenzabar. Read more about the survey here.