The Career Sip: Your Weekly Dose of Higher Ed Hustle!
Welcome back to your go-to spot for the buzz in higher education career development, where the coffee is always strong and the news always fresh.
Dive into this week's Career Sip for the latest in higher ed strategies, career development tips, and a surprising fun fact that'll leave you craving more!
Don't miss out—read till the end!
Latest News in Higher Ed
Enrollment Trends Show Encouraging Uptick for the Class of 2022
The latest report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center shows positive signs for the high school class of 2022, with a rise in college enrollment rates within a year of graduation. According to the report, 56% of students from low-income high schools enrolled in college within a year, up from 53.4% in 2021. At higher-income schools, the rate increased slightly from 65.5% to 66.3%. This growth reflects a broader recovery in postsecondary enrollment after the disruptions caused by the pandemic.
For career services teams, this trend is an encouraging signal of a renewed commitment to higher education. However, the data also highlights ongoing gaps that need attention. For instance, only 53.7% of students from high-poverty schools attended college within a year, compared to 74.1% from low-poverty schools. Though this marks an improvement from 50.5% the year before, the disparity underscores the need for targeted interventions to support low-income students through the transition to higher education.
Career professionals can play a pivotal role in closing these gaps by providing resources, mentorship, and connections to work-based learning opportunities. By focusing on helping students from underserved backgrounds stay on track, we can enhance not just their enrollment rates but also their persistence in college, leading to better long-term career outcomes. These insights should guide us as we design strategies to support students beyond enrollment and ensure they thrive in their academic and professional journeys.?
If you are interested in diving deeper, you can read the full report here .
What are we reading this week?
Exploring the 'Phygital' Future of Campuses
The abrupt switch to distance learning in 2020 pushed higher ed to become more accessible, both economically and geographically. In the future, some hybrid learning, involving a mix of in-person and remote instruction — what some call “phygital” education — will probably become a permanent part of higher education.??
In Higher Education in 2035, Thomas Fisher, a professor in the College of Design at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and director of the Minnesota Design Center, is one of many experts to provide expert insight on:?
You can find the book here .?
What's going on in CareerOS?
Visiting UCD University
As regular CareerSip readers know, we don’t often dive into CareerOS updates here. But last week, our team had the chance to visit University College of Dublin, and we couldn’t resist sharing the highlights with you!
Here’s a glimpse into a day with the CareerOS team during our visit to UCD University:
Tech
If AI Takes Over More Work of College Graduates, Where Does That Leave Higher Ed?
"While AI has already revolutionized industries such as agriculture and manufacturing, its influence is now reaching fields traditionally considered immune to automation, such as medicine, law, and architecture. This shift challenges the conventional wisdom that only routine, blue-collar tasks are susceptible to automation."
As artificial intelligence continues to evolve and integrate into various sectors, higher education faces significant shifts in its traditional roles. At the Higher Learning Commission’s annual conference, Daniel Susskind, a leading economist from King’s College London, discussed how generative AI systems like ChatGPT are poised to transform white-collar professions, potentially impacting the very foundation of higher education.
Susskind highlighted that while AI has already revolutionized industries such as agriculture and manufacturing, its influence is now reaching fields traditionally considered immune to automation, such as medicine, law, and architecture. This shift challenges the conventional wisdom that only routine, blue-collar tasks are susceptible to automation. Instead, AI’s capabilities in processing and analysis are now encroaching on roles requiring higher cognitive functions, previously thought to be uniquely human.
For career services professionals, this raises critical questions about how best to prepare students for an increasingly automated world. Susskind suggests that the optimal response is to focus on developing skills that AI cannot easily replicate, such as interpersonal communication, judgment, and empathy. Additionally, there is a growing need for educational programs that train students to design and build AI systems, ensuring they remain at the cutting edge of technology.
In response, institutions are exploring various ways to integrate AI into their operations. For instance, Grand Canyon University has developed an institution-wide AI strategy, aiming to enhance curriculum development and real-time student feedback. This proactive approach ensures that while the tools and methods may evolve, the institution’s core mission remains steadfast.
For career services teams, understanding these trends is vital. By aligning career guidance and educational programs with the evolving technological landscape, you can better equip students to navigate and thrive in an AI-driven world. Emphasizing skills that complement AI’s capabilities and preparing students to engage with these technologies directly will be key to their future success in a dynamic job market.
Latest in Career Development
The Time to Talk Transfers is Now
For many community college students, transferring to a four-year university is a crucial step toward achieving economic mobility and earning a bachelor's degree. But here’s the catch: despite 67% of 2024 Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) respondents expressing plans to transfer, only about a third of community college students who entered in 2015 actually made the leap to a four-year institution. Even more concerning, only 11% of low-income students who began at a community college earned a bachelor’s degree within six years. The gap between intention and reality is stark, and it's a call to action for career advisors.
So, what’s going wrong? A major barrier is the lack of early, proactive conversations about transfer and career pathways. While community college students are often planning to move on, 68% of them report that no one has discussed the transfer process with them. That’s a missed opportunity, especially for part-time and nontraditional students, who are even less likely to have these vital conversations. As career teams, we need to step up and make transfer discussions part of students' first-year experience, not something that gets delayed until they’re nearing graduation.
What can you do? Start embedding transfer and career exploration into your advising from day one. Help students understand how their credits align with their transfer goals, and ensure they're aware of tools like Transferology, which can provide clarity on which credits will be accepted by their target universities. Research shows that students who know how their credits transfer, and have clear academic goals, are more confident and likely to succeed. As one student shared, having early guidance gave her a "comforting feeling" that her time and money wouldn’t go to waste once she transferred.
The key takeaway for career teams is this: transfer isn’t just an academic discussion—it’s a critical part of the career journey for many students. When students see a clear path from community college to a bachelor's degree and beyond, they are more likely to follow through. Early and consistent advising not only helps students transfer successfully but also prepares them to meet their long-term career goals with greater confidence. Let’s work together to bridge the transfer gap and support students in making informed decisions that will propel them toward their future careers.?
Fun
Best Career Development Meme
Opportunities
Job Opening in Higher Education
Learn something new
Fun fact of the week
The origin of “Networking”
Here’s a fun twist on a term we often use in career development: “networking.”?
Originally, the term had nothing to do with professional connections or career advancement. In fact, dating back to the 17th century, “networking” referred to the process of creating physical nets—those intricate webs of threads used in fishing and weaving.?
Craftsmen would connect various threads to form a sturdy, functional net. It wasn’t until the 20th century that the term began evolving into the professional realm.?
The concept of networking, as we know it today, started to symbolize the process of building and leveraging relationships to advance one’s career. So, the next time you’re mingling at a career event, remember you’re engaging in a practice with historical roots in craftsmanship, connecting “threads” of people rather than yarn!
That's a wrap for this week's The Career Sip. Keep brewing your career development strategies, and we'll be back next week with another steaming cup of higher ed updates.
Stay caffeinated, my friends!