How Colleges Are Redesigning the Path to a Degree

For decades, higher education has largely been built around a traditional one-size-fits-all model: Enroll in college, complete courses, earn a degree and enter the workforce. But that route does not reflect the way many students actually navigate their college journeys today.

As students transfer between institutions, balance work and school, pursue workforce training, and earn credentials in different ways, colleges are trying to redesign the systems around them rather than force students to travel disconnected routes on their own.

Here are four things colleges are doing to rebuild pathways from learning to opportunity.

1. Make transfer less of a maze.

Students who transfer from one college to another often lose a significant share of the credits they’ve already earned, increasing both the cost of college and the time it takes to complete a degree. To address that long-standing challenge, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges has launched a new initiative designed to make transfers more seamless among participating institutions.

The SACSCOC Transfer Credit Consortium is a voluntary, faculty-led initiative that brings colleges and universities together to create common transfer protocols for general education courses. The consortium aims to reduce unnecessary credit loss, improve student mobility and shorten time to degree while allowing institutions to maintain authority over their curricula and academic policies.

SACSCOC President Stephen Pruitt said more than 160 institutions have already signed on. Participating institutions will work together to identify shared learning outcomes and establish course equivalencies for general education classes. Faculty representatives will regularly review and refine those pairings to ensure they continue to meet academic standards.

Pruitt said the interest reflects growing recognition across higher education that credit loss is a major barrier to student success.

“What hit me was we’ve not seen an accreditor actually take the lead on something like this before, or at least not that I know of,” Pruitt said. “If we step into this space and we create an environment where institutions come together and faculty are still leading the charge on this, we could leverage the great work that’s already gone on in our states.”

2. Steer students toward programs with stronger outcomes.

Although more community college students are earning credentials than ever, more than one-third of those credentials are unlikely to lead directly to a living-wage job or bachelor’s degrees that open doors for the students who earn them.

To help more students enroll in programs with stronger postgraduation outcomes, the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program and the Community College Research Center launched the Unlocking Opportunity network in 2023. The initiative aims to increase the number of students entering and completing high-value programs while helping colleges improve programs with weaker postcompletion outcomes.

The initiative began with 10 pilot colleges—ranging from large urban institutions to small rural-serving colleges—that collectively serve more than 170,000 students. During the three-year period ending in 2025, those colleges increased enrollment in high-value pathways by 27 percent while reducing enrollment in programs with weaker postcompletion outcomes by 25 percent.

Josh Wyner, executive director of Aspen’s College Excellence Program, which aims to strengthen higher education leadership to improve student success, said the initiative grew out of a long-standing challenge facing community colleges: Too many students were enrolling in programs that did not lead to strong employment or transfer opportunities, while colleges often focused more on getting students on board than on what happened after they enrolled.

“When the incentive structure is for colleges to enroll as many students as possible, two things happen: One is colleges spend a lot of time worrying about the front door and think about that often in short-term ways,” Wyner said. “The second is that they pay less attention to what happens to [students] during and after college.”

3. Turn work experience into college credit.

For generations, apprenticeships have been a cornerstone of workforce training, preparing workers for skilled trades but rarely leading to a college credential. In Michigan, a new initiative seeks to change that.

Launched by the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity in 2025, the Michigan College Credit for Apprenticeships Program allows people enrolled in registered apprenticeship programs to earn college credit for their on-the-job training. Depending on the apprenticeship and credits awarded, state leaders said, some participants may need only one additional semester of coursework to earn an associate degree.

The initiative is part of Michigan’s broader effort to increase the share of working-age residents with a degree or postsecondary credential. The state has set a goal of reaching 60 percent attainment by 2030; currently, 51.8 percent of residents have earned a credential, while college enrollment has continued to decline.

Jessica Brousseau, chief of staff for the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, said the program is designed to recognize the importance of apprenticeship training while creating a more accessible route to higher education for working adults.

“We’re really trying to help folks see that you can do both,” Brousseau said. “Apprenticeships are super rigorous, so they should count for something—more than what they already count for. Beyond just a good job and getting paid on day one, we want to make it so that when folks are done, they’re close to an associate degree.”

4. Blur the line between trades and degrees.

Higher learning and career and technical education have long been treated as separate tracks. But a new partnership in New York aims to blur that distinction by allowing students to build both academic and workforce credentials along the same educational pathway.

The University of Mount Saint Vincent last week announced a partnership with Apex Technical School to establish a skilled trades training program on its Riverdale campus in the Bronx. Beginning with electrical training, the program will allow students to pursue industry-recognized credentials while opening doors to associate and bachelor’s degrees through articulation agreements.

The model is intended to reduce barriers between vocational and higher education, giving students more opportunity to enter the workforce while continuing their education.

Susan Burns, president of the University of Mount Saint Vincent, said the partnership reflects the university’s belief that students shouldn’t have to choose between learning a trade and earning a college degree.

“It doesn’t have to be one at the exclusion of the other. It’s a yes-and,” Burns said. “Yes, pursue the trades and let us value that in providing [college] credit for those trades, and let’s put you on a path to complete at least initially an associate degree with the opportunity to complete a baccalaureate degree as well.”

Get more content like this directly to your inbox. Subscribe here.