Key Takeaways

• Academic pathways are often riddled with confusion and barriers.
• Learners desire an education, but are often discouraged by affordability, application and enrollment confusion, and a disconnect in career relevance.
• Institutions that integrate AI platforms into their processes can improve student enrollment and educational outcomes.

For generations, college journeys followed a familiar script: graduate high school, enroll full-time, earn a degree in four years and begin a career. That path still works for some but for millions of others, higher education is no longer linear. Institutions are being challenged to adapt.

Today's learners are balancing jobs, caregiving responsibilities, rising costs and rapidly changing workforce demands. Some start college and pause. Others transfer schools, return later in life or pursue shorter-term credentials to build new skills. Students now expect education to fit into their lives — not the other way around.

This shift in expectations is forcing colleges and universities to rethink how they support student success. Their focus is no longer on enrollment or graduation rates. It has evolved to prioritize helping learners navigate complex journeys with greater clarity, flexibility and confidence.

The good news is that leading institutions are beginning to embrace new technologies, including AI-powered tools, to create more connected and personalized student experiences. When integrated into application, enrollment and academic planning processes, AI can help simplify complex systems, effectively guide students and provide support throughout the student journey. In short, it allows learners to focus more fully on achieving their educational and career goals.

Hurdles that hinder achievement

The path to education presented by conventional institutional processes is filled with many hurdles linked to affordability, clarity and relevance.

Affordability: Cost remains the leading barrier to pursuing higher education. According to the 2025 Student Voice Report from Ellucian, the leading higher education technology solutions provider, 53% of high school students who do not plan to enroll cited cost as the top deterrent.

Similarly, 56% of opt-outs (individuals who never attended college) said financial uncertainty was the top reason for not attending, and almost a quarter of stop-outs (students who started but didn't complete a degree) said they they could not afford the up-front costs to return to school.

While colleges can't always lower tuition costs, they can make it easier for students to understand expenses, compare aid options and avoid unexpected financial barriers.

Clarity: Administrative tasks students must complete before and after admission can be confusing and unclear, discouraging students from enrolling or returning to college.

In fact, Ellucian's report found that many high school students are unsure of how to begin the college application process. Instead of seeking information from universities, students are turning to social media for guidance or entering the workforce directly.

Students considering returning to complete their education were discouraged by unclear academic pathways.

According to Ellucian's report, only 22% of stop-outs understood their remaining credit requirements, and even fewer (15%) felt confident in the credit transfer process. Also, the majority of students interested in transferring credits expressed uncertainty about how their previously earned credits would be recognized.

That said, many former students are interested in returning to their education. Of the students surveyed, 60% of stop-outs said they would return to college with a clear path to completion.

Relevance: Higher education's benefits and its connection to future careers aren't always apparent. When surveyed, many individuals opted out because they believed college was not essential for their career goals. Many also didn't believe the cost and time investment outweighed the benefits of obtaining a college degree/certificate.

Nondegree options that offer upskilling and reskilling opportunities could be a draw for learners seeking a clearer connection to workforce-relevant pathways — if they were aware of them.

The survey report revealed that more than a quarter of enrolled students had never heard of these alternative offerings. Even among those who had heard of nondegree programs, many couldn't articulate their purpose or value. However, when informed, many graduates, current college students and opt-outs saw the value in nondegree programs.

What can help re-engage learners?

So, the question becomes: how can institutions re-engage learners? It begins with unifying academic, financial and operational processes to simplify the student experience from the first application through graduation day, using an AI-powered system such as Ellucian Student.

When integrated into an institution's application, enrollment and academic planning processes, AI becomes an ongoing resource for students throughout their educational journey.

AI platforms can automate the educational planning process, helping students better understand which classes meet their degree or certificate requirements and enroll in them each semester. And, as they learn, the platform can provide a transparent map of their educational path, leading to better outcomes.

By offering easy-to-understand financial aid offer letters, automated aid processes and optimized fund utilization, an integrated AI platform can help students better understand the total cost of their education, allowing them to plan how to afford higher education, ultimately reducing the top barrier to student enrollment and persistence.

Students aren't the only ones who benefit from AI integration. Institutions can improve their efficiency by using AI to automate routine operations, freeing up more time for the human element. When faculty and staff spend less time on operational tasks, they can focus more on students to help learners get on track, stay on track and get ahead.

Just as important, institutions need direct input from students to ensure the technologies and processes they implement truly meet learners' needs. By sharing their experiences and perspectives, students can help shape more accessible, transparent and effective educational journeys for future generations. Students interested in helping shape the future of higher education technology can join EnlightenED, Ellucian's student ambassador program. Participants gain opportunities to build career-ready skills, expand their professional networks, contribute their perspectives to conversations about higher education innovation and help influence solutions designed to improve the student experience.