October 2026 – Research Updates and News, Affordability Gaps, AI in Higher Ed, and More

October 2026, Eye on Research

Commentary

The People Behind the Pages: Thank You to Our Book Volunteers

By October, most offices are in the thick of the term. Census is behind us, transcript requests are coming in and spring scheduling is already showing up in our inboxes. It’s the busiest stretch of the fall. During this time, nearly 40 of our colleagues have been reading chapter drafts, answering one more question about teach-out records or SEVIS, and sending back comments that are going to make three AACRAO books better.

This month I want to thank them for their time and their dedication to our profession.

What does it take to write guidance that a registrar at a community college, a medical school and a research university can all use? It takes people from each of those places willing to tell you where a draft doesn’t match how the work actually gets done. Our subject matter experts (SMEs) did that again and again. They pushed back and asked hard questions. When they found a gap, they usually sent the fix along with the comment. They did all of this as volunteers, on top of full-time jobs.

The titles our SMEs worked on include the following.

Academic Record and Transcript Guide: A Learner-Centered Approach to Documentation and Disclosures

A team of four SME editors read the full manuscript chapter by chapter. Their offices range from a community college to a research university. The book asks registrars to look toward leading practice instead of settling for prevailing practice, and these editors made sure that stance held up against real institutional constraints. Specialized SMEs went deeper on noncredit education, accessibility, and competency-based education, transcript processing and eTranscripts, and closed and merged institutions.

The Registrar’s Guide: Foundations and Evolving Practice

Three contributing editors shaped the anchor book of the registrar series. A large group of specialized SMEs is finishing its second-draft review this month. Each one is checking every passage in their area. Together they cover law schools, health professions, graduate and professional programs, student athletes, veterans educational benefits, military-affiliated learners, SEVIS, prison education programs, returning and adult learners, swirling and reverse transfer, closed and merged institutions, and leadership and succession planning.

Learner Records Management: Retention, Disposition and Archive

Four SME editors helped rebuild this book around the records lifecycle. Specialist SMEs in artificial intelligence, institutional closings and transitions, noncredit records, learning and employment records, and records security and storage reviewed these topics for accuracy and currency.

Across All Three Books

Three of our volunteers said yes to two books. That’s a lot of evenings.

Several AACRAO colleagues also reviewed the regulatory, FERPA, international and credentialing content. Our copy editors kept our commas and our consistency honest.

We’re Launching All Three Books and Companion Online Classes by the 2027 AACRAO Annual Meeting

All three books, along with companion AACRAO online classes, will be available by the 2027 AACRAO Annual Meeting April 4-7, 2027, in Long Beach, California. Here’s a look at what the three titles cover.

• Academic Record and Transcript Guide (2027 Edition) covers what belongs on the academic record and the transcript, how to document noncredit learning and where digital credentials fit. It also includes the guide’s first noncredit sample transcripts.
• The Registrar’s Guide (2027 Edition) has 22 chapters on the registrar’s work, from the role itself to graduate programs and learner success. Chapters are organized around the AACRAO Competency Set 2026.
• Learner Records Management (2027 Edition) updates AACRAO’s records-retention guidance around the full records lifecycle. It adds a dedicated chapter on institutional closures, mergers and teach-out arrangements.

When these books arrive, take a minute to review the contributor pages. You’ll likely see a name you know. When you do, tell them thank you. They earned it.

AACRAO Research Updates 

Chief Enrollment Management Officer Career Profile

We need your help. The Chief Enrollment Management Officer (CEMO) Career Profile survey is still open. To produce a meaningful report, we need more people to respond, so we are extending the deadline through the end of November.

If you hold the CEMO position, or its equivalent, at your institution, please look for the survey in your inbox. It takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. If you work with your institution’s CEMO, please encourage them to take part or forward this note to them.

The survey asks CEMOs about:

• the paths that brought them to the role
• who they report to and whether they sit on the president’s cabinet
• which enrollment functions they lead or supervise
• their role in institutional governance and decision making
• job satisfaction, workload and pressure
• where they see their careers going next

This is the fourth iteration of the CEMO Career Profile. We have deployed this survey every 3 years since 2017. Moving forward, we will repeat it every 5 years, so data from this round will stand for a while.

Registrar’s Office Staffing Benchmark

How many people does it take to run a registrar’s office, and is it enough? AACRAO is benchmarking registrar’s office staffing for the first time. The survey closes October 28; more than 300 institutions have already responded.

The survey asks registrar’s office leaders about many aspects of staffing. 

• How many full- and part-time staff work on undergraduate, graduate and/or professional registrar functions?
• What kind of remote and hybrid work options are available?
• Does the registrar’s office also have admissions responsibilities?
• What are the salary ranges for entry-level staff, such as records specialists?
• What are some of your current staffing challenges, including recruiting, turnover and burnout?
• Which AACRAO competencies are the team’s most critical skill gaps?
• What are your concerns about knowledge transfer and succession planning?

The results will inform a research report and provide current data for the 2027 edition of The Registrar’s Guide. Thank you to everyone who has already taken part and to those who will participate.

3-Year Bachelor’s Degrees 60-Second Survey

We’ve touched on 3-year bachelor’s degrees in a previous blog. Next month, AACRAO will send out a brief survey on the use of, and interest in, 3-year bachelor’s-degree programs. The survey covers both reduced-credit degrees, most commonly 90 to 96 credit hours, and the standard 120 credits delivered on a compressed calendar.

We want to hear from you, whether your institution already enrolls learners in one of these programs, is building one, is considering it or has decided against it. The questions adjust to your answers, so you will see only the ones that apply to you. Among the questions are those below.

• How do these degrees show up on the academic record and transcript?
• When was the registrar’s office brought into the planning?
• Which operational pieces have been hardest to get right?
• How does your institution treat a 3-year degree when that graduate applies for graduate or professional-program admission?

Please watch your inbox in November. The survey takes about 3 minutes, and one response per institution is preferred.

Call for Participants 

Experienced Enrollment Administrators’ Perceptions of Recruiting International Undergraduate Learners

I am a doctoral candidate in the Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) program at Touro University Nevada and Senior Manager of Operations and Student Services at Touro University Graduate School of Business in New York City. My dissertation research explores how experienced university-enrollment administrators view the successes, challenges and strategies of recruiting international undergraduate learners at higher education institutions in the United States.

I am seeking participants who:

• are currently employed at a U.S. higher education institution
• have at least 2 years of professional experience in international undergraduate recruitment, admissions, advising or enrollment management
• are willing to share their professional experiences and perspectives on international undergraduate recruitment

The Touro University Nevada Institutional Review Board has approved this study (TUNIRB000448). Participation is voluntary and consists of an individual virtual interview on Zoom lasting approximately 45 minutes. Participants will receive a $25 gift card. All information collected will be kept confidential, and participants’ identities will not be disclosed in the reported findings.

If you meet the study criteria, I would welcome your participation. If you know colleagues who may qualify, I would be grateful if you shared this opportunity within your professional networks. Individuals interested in participating may complete the participant interest and informed consent form at [https://tun.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0rmA8pTVb2cXlPg]. For questions about the study, please contact me at vizquier@student.touro.edu.

Thank you for supporting this research and contributing to a better understanding of international undergraduate recruitment in U.S. higher education.

Best,
Victor R. Izquierdo

Current Higher-Education Research and Related Topics 

Public Colleges Are Getting Harder to Afford

NCAN’s 2026 Analysis Finds Affordability Gaps Widened for Learners
National College Attainment Network (NCAN) | September 28, 2026

NCAN’s annual Affordability Gap study checks whether limited- and moderate-income learners can cover the full cost of public colleges using grants, federal loans, work-study, family contribution and summer earnings. For 2023-24, the gap grew larger at both 4-year schools and community colleges. Tuition has stayed flat, but living costs rose faster than aid, so the $7,395 Pell maximum purchases less than it used to.

• Only 32% of 542 public bachelor’s-granting schools and 42% of 570 community colleges met NCAN’s affordability standard.
• The average gap was $1,801 at 4-year public institutions and $1,228 at community colleges.
• In 12 states, no public 4-year school in the sample was affordable. In seven states, no community college was affordable.
• Only Arizona, Mississippi, Montana and New Mexico had an institution that was affordable in both sectors.

Provosts Use AI Every Week, but Few Campuses Have a Plan for It

From AI Use to Funding Cuts: How Provosts Are Navigating 2026
Inside Higher Ed (survey with Hanover Research) | September 23, 2026

Inside Higher Ed’s annual survey of 376 chief academic officers covered AI, federal funding, academic freedom and tenure. Most provosts use AI in their own work, but few see it changing how the institution runs. Federal-funding losses remain a major concern, especially at public doctoral universities.

• About 70% of provosts use AI at least weekly, but only about 10% say their institution has a centralized AI strategy.
• 50% report that federal funding has declined under the current administration.
• 45% call tenure very or extremely important to their institution’s health, down 8% from last year.
• 53% favor long-term contracts.
• 48% say academic freedom on their campus is strong and well protected, up from 36%.

Universities Talk Big About AI, but Few Build It Into How They Operate

How Colleges and Universities are Adopting AI in Higher Education: A Global Comparative Analysis
Roy Y. Chan, Lee University | EdWorkingPaper No. 26-1576, Annenberg Institute at Brown University | September 2026 version

Roy Y. Chan scored the top 100 universities in the Times Higher Education 2026 rankings on 20 indicators covering AI governance, curriculum, policy and support. Most schools land in the middle, with AI showing up mainly through research centers, degree programs and policy statements. Only a few have built it into governance and day-to-day operations. Adoption is uneven. Only four schools were noted to have reached full institutionalization.

• Index scores didn’t align with global rankings, so prestige doesn’t predict how far a school has gone with AI.
• North American universities scored higher than those in Europe and Asia. Fourteen of the top 15 were in North America.
• The author believes there is a gap between describing AI as transformative and any actual change in how universities are structured.

Learners Increasingly Consider Politics in Choosing a College

Inside Higher Ed · October 13, 2026

A new Art & Science Group poll finds political sorting in college choice has intensified after the 2024 election cycle. Researchers surveyed nearly 3,000 high school seniors and recent graduates across two rounds in the 2025-26 admissions cycle.

• 34% of respondents ruled out a school based solely on state politics, up from 24% in 2023 and 28% in 2024, suggesting a steady trend, rather than an election-year blip.
• The effect hits early: 73% of learners who ruled out a college because of politics said it shaped their thinking from the beginning of their search, before they even applied.
• Liberal-leaning learners most often eliminated schools in southern states like Texas and Florida, while conservative-leaning learners most often ruled out California, Colorado and New York.
• Pollsters say the pattern reflects growing self-segregation into political “bubbles” happening at younger ages, which colleges can partly counter by actively positioning themselves against their state’s reputation.

Calculus Is an Admissions Barrier—Even for Learners Who Weren’t Offered It

Inside Higher Ed · October 16, 2026

A University of Michigan-led study found admissions officers penalize engineering applicants for not taking calculus, even when their high school did not offer the course. The researchers ran a “lab-in-the-field” experiment in which 292 real admissions officers reviewed fake, but realistic, application files.

• Applicants who hadn’t taken calculus because their school didn’t offer it were 16.4% less likely to be recommended for admission than those who had, despite those learners taking the most advanced math and science available to them.
• Officers who spent the least time reviewing the school’s course-offering profile penalized these learners even more heavily, by 22.1%, versus 11% for those who reviewed it closely.
• The finding undercuts “holistic review,” which is supposed to judge learners against the opportunities actually available at their school.
• The study suggests other courses, like physics, might carry similar hidden weight in admissions decisions.

New Earnings Test Will Have Limited but Concentrated Impact

Inside Higher Ed · October 15, 2026

A new report from American University’s Postsecondary Education & Economics Research Center estimates the U.S. Department of Education’s new earnings-based accountability rule will affect a small but specific slice of programs. The rule, launched July 1, 2026, won’t trigger real penalties until 2028 at the earliest because it needs 2 years of data.

• About 2.5% of the 19.9 million learners receiving federal aid, nearly 500,000 people, are in programs projected to fail the test.
• Failing graduate programs cluster heavily in mental health and social services, with the largest ones run by online-heavy schools like Grand Canyon, Capella, and Liberty.
• Undergraduate certificate programs account for 10% of federal-aid recipients, but 60% of learners are in failing programs, such as cosmetology and medical administration.
• A program fails if its typical graduate doesn’t out-earn a high school graduate in the same state for 2 of 3 years.
• Graduate programs are compared against bachelor’s-degree holders.

Connecting Dual Enrollment to Career Training

Inside Higher Ed · October 19, 2026

A Community College Research Center report finds a big gap between learners in career and technical education (CTE) and those earning college credit through dual enrollment. Researchers at Teachers College, Columbia University interviewed 135 educators across 12 colleges, high schools, and districts.

• Among 2019 high school graduates, 28% took a dual-enrollment course, but 33% completed three or more CTE credits without ever participating in dual enrollment. This means over 1 million learners a year miss the opportunity to earn dual-enrollment credit.
• The report identifies three practical fixes–folding dual enrollment into existing CTE classes, building it into career-themed high school academies and letting high schoolers start college CTE certificate programs early.
• Examples include Kilgore College in Texas, where 90% of a local Title I school’s CTE classes now carry dual-enrollment credit, and Oakland Unified’s career academies that pair fashion-design classes with college-level coursework.
• Researchers believe the biggest barrier isn’t building new programs but getting colleges and K-12 districts to share a common vision for where the courses lead.