Understanding how higher education prepares students for a skills-based and increasingly uncertain workforce.
Students believe they're ready for the workforce. Their schools are less certain. The employers waiting to hire them are the least convinced of all. Based on a national survey of 2,178 undergraduates, graduate students, recent graduates, administrators, and recruiters, the State of Higher Ed 2026 unpacks the gap between what students experience in the classroom and what awaits them outside it, and what institutions can do to close it.
84% of students believe they're prepared for the workforce. Only 37% of recruiters agree.
94% of students who completed an internship say it prepared them for their career — but only 19.4% have had one.
Family satisfaction with college ROI dropped from 77% to 59% in a single year.
42.1% of students worry about their financial security. 100% of administrators say their students do.
Only 28.8% of undergraduates worry about AI displacing their jobs — a gap institutions can get ahead of right now.
Five actionable strategies institutions can implement to close the experience, skills, and AI gaps.
Whether you lead student affairs, career services, academic advising, or institutional strategy, this report gives you the data and the framework to act. The three gaps it identifies — experience, skills, and AI — are measurable, addressable, and well within reach of institutions willing to move on them.
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