Complete College America’s (CCA) 2024 Annual Convening, hosted in Indianapolis this past month and framed around going “All In” on college attainment, brought together an array of postsecondary practitioners, leaders, and researchers focusing on student mobility and outcomes.

At the conference, Martin Kurzweil and I led a strategy showcase focused on the Holistic Credit Mobility project, a cornerstone of our continuing efforts to support increasingly mobile students. In collaboration with CCA, Ithaka S+R is in the final stages of recruiting state and system agencies and other higher education consortia to participate in a Holistic Credit Mobility Cohort community of practice. Our discussions with attendees revealed that learner mobility is top of mind for many in higher education. We are grateful to CCA for the opportunity to convene with others so focused on removing the barriers students face on their path to a degree.

This blog post captures some of the conference’s key themes, including how higher education leaders are navigating core challenges relating to institutional trust, student success, and artificial intelligence.

Addressing a Shifting Policy Context

The conference’s timing—less than two weeks following the 2024 presidential election—afforded opportunities to reflect on recent and long-standing tectonic shifts impacting higher education policy, both federally and at the state level. One of the core challenges facing higher education, collectively, remains the declining public trust in postsecondary institutions and increased skepticism about the value of a college degree. Jamie Merisotis, president of Lumina Foundation, addressed these themes in his keynote address, “Degrees of Democracy: Rebuilding Confidence in the Value of a College Degree.”

In his presentation, Merisotis argued that the current challenges facing higher education also present a clear opportunity for postsecondary leaders to identify and implement strategies that spark systematic change. For Merisotis, higher education’s response to this crisis of faith should be to provide the evidence and narratives that demonstrate to the general public and policymakers that postsecondary education remains crucial to our society and economy in numerous, measurable ways.

Merisotis also noted that, alongside declining public trust, there have also been pointed attacks from certain powerful voices and groups against higher education, particularly in areas such as equity and diversity that many of our colleges and universities consider central to their missions. These topics remain a concern as culture wars continue to embattle higher education. Merisotis urged attendees to remain committed to keeping equity as one of the guiding principles in our work.

Merisotis also emphasized the essential connection between education and democracy, a connection that today is increasingly “understated, undervalued, and undermined.” By focusing on the public goods afforded by education and working within the sector to promote civic engagement and civic learning, Merisotis sees a path forward through increased focus on state leadership in higher education, which should promote creativity, convey a positive conception of higher education, and begin the work necessary to rebuild trust in this key institution of American society.

Holistic Student Supports

Framed by CCA’s Four Pillars of Transformation—Purpose, Structure, Momentum, and Support—presenters showcased creative and sophisticated approaches colleges and universities are taking to improve student outcomes.

One private philanthropy-backed initiative, the McConnell Scholars Program, awards $30,000 to select Pell-eligible local students in Northern California. An evaluation of the program undertaken by the Shasta College Attainment and Innovation Lab for Equity (SCAILE) and Troy Street Professional Services highlighted the promise of targeted interventions and holistic student supports for increasing persistence among at-risk student populations. Through creative usage of these funds and targeted student supports throughout their time enrolled, McConnell Scholars’ four-year graduation rate is 91 percent, far greater than the mean rates at California public colleges and universities.

In a panel, with Sameer Gadkaree, president of TICAS, and Aneesh Sohoni, CEO of One Million Degrees, CCA’s Charles Ansell discussed key considerations for grant seekers as they design strategies to improve student success. Ansell believes that multi-year agenda setting and planning affords the ability to zoom out and enact structural changes, rather than simply making tweaks to existing, but insufficient, systems. When it comes to student advising, structural reform, he argued, is critical. Ansell also presented a clear vision for the incorporation of belonging in the existing suite of student outcomes practitioners should care deeply about.

Artificial Intelligence Optimism

In today’s machine learning age, no discussion about education can avoid AI altogether, and this conference was no exception. One intriguing session focused on AI’s potential to address scarcity within higher education, reflecting on novel mechanisms for counteracting limited capacity within institutions to accommodate sizable student populations, meet faculty and staff constraints, expand existing modes of instruction, and establish novel pathways suitable for all types of learners. In such cases, AI may prove a powerful tool in driving access and attainment.

Other discussions focused on the future of work and AI competency, centering higher education’s role in preparing students for careers that will develop AI tools or that harness such tools to improve productivity. Developing AI skills in higher education, particularly for at-risk populations, may pave new avenues to aligning workforce and labor market needs through development or enhancement.

Conclusion

CCA’s annual convening came at a pivotal time in higher education, affording participants the opportunity to consider the challenges of our current moment, reflect on great work already in motion, and strategize for the future. It also served as a forum for those actively engaged in supporting student journeys through a wide array of means—such as the wraparound student supports embedded in the McConnell Scholars Program or the usage of AI to free up administrative capacity to perform targeted student advising—suggesting that the field is placing student mobility at the heart of its innovation efforts.